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A Phantasy

It was midwinter but despite the fact that the Watcher by the
Threshold reported Grey Weather preparations were afoot in Castle Gay
for the Half-Hearted search for the Lost Lady of Old Years. Perhaps the
younger people would have discontinued it but Sir Walter the Laird
insisted on this annual commemoration of the day when his ancestor
John Burnet of Barns, that Sir Quixote of the Moors, set out to
seek his love in the Grove of Ashtaroth.

You proably know the story, how the romantic maiden, ever quoting
the Rime of True Thomas and loving to array herself in a Green Mantle
was so beguiled by one of the wantering Kings of Orion with his tales
of the Far Islands that when her lover returned from the Riding of Nine
Mile Burn, having been delayed on his journey At the Rising of the
Waters, he was met by a white faced Herd of Strulan with the news
that the night before at the Outgoing of the Tide the Black Fishers had
seen the glib tongued stranger with a lady cloaked in green making
their way by the shore towards the mouth of the Green Glen. John
Burnet followed in the Path of the King and his dupe to what is now
the South African Colony, but it was a Journey of little Profit. After
many days he came to the edge of a No Man's Land impossible to
cross. There he built him A Lodge in the Wilderness and dwelt solitary
save for a Green Wildebeest which he had tamed, giving Salute
to Adventurers who might happen to pass that way seeking their
fortune. It is reported, with what truth one knows not, that at the
Article of Death his lost love sent him a message asking his forgiveness.

The party assembled included Sir Walter, long a widower. Of the
Three Hostages he had given to fortune his eldest son had brought several
friends from The Runagates Club to aid in the search. The two younger,
relieved to escape from the campaigns of Julius Caesar were eager to join
the party. Sir Walter's own crony Lord Ardwell of Nuntingtower was as
usual at that season of the year a guest at the castle. An old soldier of