"You'll come and tuck me up, an' kiss me good-night, won't you?"
"To be sure I will," nodded Lisbeth.
"Why, then, I'll go," said the Imp; and with a wave of the hand to me he went.
"Dick," said Lisbeth, staring up at the moon, "it was very unwise of you, to say the least of it, to set a desperate criminal at large."
"I'm afraid it was, Lisbeth; but then I saw there was good in the fellow, you know, and--er----"
"Dick," she said again, and then laughed suddenly, with the dimple in full evidence, "you foolish old Dick--you know you would have done it anyway for the sake of that old man."
"Poor old Jasper!" I said; "I'm really afraid I should." Then a wonderful thing happened; for as I reached out my hand to her, she caught it suddenly in hers, and before I knew, had pressed her lips upon it--and so was gone.
CHAPTER VII
THE BLASTED OAK
I had quarrelled with Lisbeth; had quarrelled beyond all hope of redemption and forgiveness, desperately, irrevocably, and it had all come about through a handkerchief--Mr. Selwyn's handkerchief.