came suddenly out from behind a cloud, and he saw he was grasping a piece of a white dress, and that its owner's flight had been arrested by a stiff bough of black thorn, which had caught and held her fast. He heard the sound of hurried breathing and faint suppressed laughter, and could see a slight girlish figure, but little more, for the moon had suddenly disappeared behind another cloud, leaving but a dim light behind her. Lord Norwich had been successful in capturing the wood nymph, but now that he had caught her, he scarcely knew what to do, and so he stood for a few moments, still retaining his hold of the mysterious singer's robe. There was something very unreal and mystical in it all, and Lord Norwich would not have been surprised if he had suddenly awaked and found

it was all a dream, and that he was in his own room at the barracks. The first thing that aroused him was feeling the garment which he held being softly withdrawn from his hold. In a moment the mysterious spirit would have fled, and he spoke, using the first words which came to his lips.

"Were you the singer?

There was a short pause, and then a voice, very soft and sweet, with a little tremble of suppressed laughter, answered,

Yes. I-I-hope you did not mind; I only did it in fun; I was in the wood, and I heard people singing. Please let me go."

As she ended, the moon shone out again, and the young man saw the speaker's face. Just a fleeting glimpse, for the moon,

as if bent on tantalising him, again vanished behind another cloud.

"Bother the moon," thought Lord Norwich ; "but what a beauty I have caught. By Jove! she's gone!"

Lord Norwich made a frantic clutch, but he only grasped empty air, for his wood nymph had vanished into the darkness as mysteriously as she had appeared. And laughing heartily, and yet interested by the little adventure, he groped his way back through the wood to where the other members of the party had reassembled, after a fruitless chase.

CHAPTER II.

66 A SPIRIT, YET A WOMAN TOO."

"And then her face,

So lovely, yet so arch, so full of mirth,
The overflowing of an innocent heart.”

ORD NORWICH underwent

good deal of chaff from his brother officers concerning the mysterious Kathleen who had replied to his song, and a considerable amount of disbelief was expressed as to his having caught the singer. Who was she? What was her name? Why had he not asked? They were certain it was all a fabrication

on his part, and that he had not seen anybody. Pretty! they did not believe

a word of it. If he really had hold of her dress, why did he not find out her name or where she lived before he let her go? But Lord Norwich was not to be laughed out of his story. The little adventure had impressed itself upon his mind, and he thought of it frequently. The moonlight slanting down across the dark tree stems; the slender white figure flying before him through the dim silent woods; the exquisite voice that had filled the whole glen with divine melody. It was all so romantic and mysterious.

It was a week after the picnic that the annual Horse Fair was held at Derrylinn, and as Lord Norwich and his friend Captain Ashurst were making their way slowly through the crowd, criticising the