| I. | TREASURE TROVE |
| II. | THE SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM |
| III. | THE DESPERADOES |
| IV. | MOON MAGIC |
| V. | THE EPISODE OF THE INDIAN'S AUNT |
| VI. | THE OUTLAW |
| VII. | THE BLASTED OAK |
| VIII. | THE LAND OF HEART'S DELIGHT |
I sat fishing. I had not caught anything, of course—I rarely do, noram I fond of fishing in the very smallest degree, but I fishedassiduously all the same, because circumstances demanded it.
It had all come about through Lady Warburton, Lisbeth's maternal aunt.Who Lisbeth is you will learn if you trouble to read these veraciousnarratives—suffice it for the present that she has been an orphan fromher youth up, with no living relative save her married sister Julia andher Aunt (with a capital A)—the Lady Warburton aforesaid.
Lady Warburton is small and somewhat bony, with a sharp chin and asharper nose, and invariably uses lorgnette; also, she is possessed ofmuch worldly goods.
Precisely a week ago Lady Warburton had requested me to call uponher—had regarded me with a curious exactitude through her lorgnette,and gently though firmly (Lady Warburton is always firm) had suggestedthat Elizabeth, though a dear child, was young and inclined to be alittle self-willed. That she (Lady Warburton) was of opinion thatElizabeth had mistaken the friendship which had existed between us solong for something stronger. That although she (Lady Warburton) quiteappreciated the fact that one who wrote books, and occasionally a play,was not necessarily immoral— Still I was, of course, a terribleBohemian, and the air of Bohemia was not calculated to conduce to thatdegree of matrimonial harmony which she (Lady Warburton) as Elizabeth'sAunt, standing to her in place of a mother, could wish for. That,therefore, under these circumstances my attentions were—etc., etc.