packet, and so on. At the
fourth he hurled the whole thing into the snow. Denys took it out
and rebuked his petulance. He excused himself on the ground of hating
affectation.

Denys attested, "'The great toe of the little daughter of Herodias'
there was no affectation here, but only woman's good wit. Doubtless the
wraps contained something which out of delicacy, or her sex's lovely
cunning, she would not her hind should see her bestow on a young man;
thy garter, to wit."

"I wear none."

"Her own then; or a lock of her hair. What is this? A piece of raw silk
fresh from the worm. Well, of all the love tokens!"

"Now who but thee ever dreamed that she is so naught as send me love
tokens? I saw no harm in her--barring her hands."

"Stay, here is something hard lurking in this soft nest. Come forth, I
say, little nestling! Saints and pikestaves! look at this!"

It was a gold ring with a great amethyst glowing and sparkling, full
coloured, but pure as crystal.

"How lovely!" said Gerard innocently.

"And here is something writ; read it thou! I read not so glib as some,
when I know not the matter beforehand."

Gerard took the paper. "'Tis a posy, and fairly enough writ." He read
the lines, blushing like a girl. They were very naive, and may be thus
Englished:--

'Youth, with thee my heart is fledde,
Come back to the 'golden Hedde!'
Wilt not? yet this token keepe
Of hir who doeth thy goeing weepe.
Gyf the world prove harsh and cold,
Come back to 'the Hedde of gold.'"

"The little dove!" purred Denys.

"The great owl! To go and risk her good name thus. However, thank Heaven
she has played this prank with an honest lad that will ne'er expose her
folly. But oh, the perverseness! Could she not bestow her nauseousness
on thee?" Denys sighed and shrugged. "On thee that art as ripe for folly
as herself?"

Denys confessed that his young friend had harped his very thought. 'Twas
passing strange to him that a damsel with eyes in her head should pass
by a man, and bestow her affections on a boy. Still he could not but
recognize in this the bounty of Nature. Boys were human beings after
all, and but for this occasional caprice of women, their lot would be
too terrible; they would be out of the sun altogether, blighted, and
never come to anything; since only the fair could make a man out of
such unpromising materials as a boy. Gerard interrupted this flattering
discourse to beg the warrior