THE LADY AND THE CAVALIER The day was fine, and the landscape lay clean and sharply defined under the blue sky and white clouds.

I sped along in a cheerful mood, well pleased with what my good cycle had so far done for me.

Again I passed the open gate of the Putney estate, and glanced through it at the lodge.

I saw no one, and was glad of it--better pleased, perhaps, than I could have given good reason for.

When I had gone on a few hundred yards I was suddenly startled by a voice--a female voice.
"Well! well!" cried some one on my right, and turning, I saw, above a low wall, the head and shoulders of the young lady with the dark eyes with whom I had parted an hour or so before.