And about him elves were dancing in derision, and the little gnomes

came out of the cave after him, carrying gold in handfuls and casting

it after him, shouting, "Fairy love and fairy gold! Fairy love and

fairy gold!"



And when he heard these words, came a great fear that it was all over,

and he lifted up his voice and called to her by her name, and suddenly

set himself to run down the slope from the mouth of the cavern,

through a place of thorns and briers, calling after her very loudly

and often. The elves danced about him unheeded, pinching him

and pricking him, and the will-o'-the-wisps circled round him

and dashed into his face, and the gnomes pursued him shouting and

pelting him with fairy gold. As he ran with all this strange rout

about him and distracting him, suddenly he was knee-deep in a swamp,

and suddenly he was amidst thick twisted roots, and he caught his foot

in one and stumbled and fell. . . .



He fell and he rolled over, and in that instant he found himself

sprawling upon Aldington Knoll, all lonely under the stars.



He sat up sharply at once, he says, and found he was very stiff

and cold, and his clothes were damp with dew. The first pallor

of dawn and a chilly wind were coming up together. He could have

believed the whole thing a strangely vivid dream until he thrust

his hand into his side pocket and found it stuffed with ashes.

Then he knew for certain it was fairy gold they had given him.

He could feel all their pinches and pricks still, though there was

never a bruise upon him. And in that manner, and so suddenly,

Mr. Skelmersdale came out of Fairyland back into this world of men.

Even then he fancied the thing was but the matter of a night until

he returned to the shop at Aldington Corner and discovered amidst

their astonishment that he had been away three weeks.



"Lor'! the trouble I 'ad!" said Mr. Skelmersdale.



"How?"



"Explaining. I suppose you've never had anything like that to explain."



"Never," I said, and he expatiated for a time on the behaviour of

this person and that. One name he avoided for a space.



"And Millie?" said I at last.



"I didn't seem to care a bit for seeing Millie," he said.



"I expect she seemed changed?"



"Every one was changed. Changed for good. Every one seemed big,

you know, and coarse. And their voices seemed loud. Why, the sun,



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