CHAPTER III.
THE KNIGHT ERRANT It was the afternoon of Easter Day, and a marvellous peace lay upon all things.
Maurice Brandon, a look of supreme boredom on his handsome face, had just sauntered down to the river bank.

A belt of daffodils nodded to him from the shrubbery on the farther shore.

He stood and stared at them absently while he idly smoked a cigarette.
Finally, after a long and quite unprofitable inspection, he turned aside to investigate a boathouse under the willows on Mrs.Lockyard's side of the stream.

He found the door unlocked, and discovered within a somewhat dilapidated punt.

This, after considerable exertion, he managed to drag forth and finally to run into the water.