But the Brown Fairy only dimpled afresh and shook her curls.
"Bah!" she retorted. "I tell you I am going to be a _very_ grand lady. Perhaps I shall have to go away, however, from this dear garden and home, and be Madame la Marquise, far off over the sea. I do not want to go away. So, if you will let me stay here _always_ and have my white rabbits and dear old Nurse Bond, why, then I perhaps will be your little sweetheart."
She announced this with much deliberation, so that Michael's eyes twinkled merrily.
"You shall certainly stay here," he said. "For I am Michael Berrington, and one day the old Manor yonder will be mine, and then I shall come for you, Gabrielle, and you shall be _my_ lady."
She nodded, dancing first on one foot then on the other.
"It is better than playing ball all alone," she cried gleefully. "I am glad I threw it over the wall and that you brought it back, for now you will have to be my brave knight, such as Nurse has told me of, and I will be your sweet lady."
Michael bowed. "Yes," he promised, "I will be your knight, and you shall give me kisses when I ask for them."
Again she clapped her hands, then paused, a pink finger pressed against her lips.
"And will you fight the dragons when they come?" she asked, "and save me from being devoured?"
"Of course," he replied, thinking that never before had he seen so pretty a baby-maid or listened to so sweet a voice.
Her eyes were bright as stars as she came a step nearer.
"Then you may kiss me, my knight," she said with quaint gravity. "And I will be your true love for ever and ever, like the princesses and queens in old Nurse's tales."
And Michael bent his dark head to the level of pouting lips.
So Michael found the way to Langton Hall and to little Mistress Gabrielle Conyers's heart. But never a word said he of his discovery, not even when Jake Williams upbraided him with being late for the first round with the cocks.
So summer days glided past, and Sir Henry, hearing first of one mischievous prank, then another, swore again and again that the devil himself must be in his grandson, and urged on Master Timothy Parblett to spare not the rod.
But Master Timothy, though he talked boastfully before Sir Henry, was a very lamb in the presence of his pupil, for Michael had muscle in his long arms, and a breadth of chest which made the worthy tutor tremble as he viewed it.