THE ELFIN EXILE. 49 



wandered listlessly away, he espied Mimosa, half hidden be- 

 neath the shadow of a cowslip leaf. Believing herself safe 

 from the eyes of her gay companions, she had loosed the clasps 

 of her dark robe, and the rich soft moonlight fell full upon her 

 upturned brow, while it seemed to nestle tenderly upon her 

 half-veiled bosom. Oberon was in one of those moods of 

 idlesse which always leave the heart or the senses dangerously 

 free. He gazed upon the loveliness of the half-sad, half- 

 dreaming fairy, until a sweet bewilderment took possession of 

 him, and with a sudden impulse he glided like a ray of light to 

 the feet of Mimosa. Starting from her reverie, and hastily 

 folding her robe around her shrinking form, the fairy sprang 

 from her graceful repose, but she escaped not until Oberon had 

 tasted the sweets of a kiss stolen from unsullied lips. 



It happened, most unluckily, that a cross, gnarled-looking 

 old fairy, who had never, in her whole life, been pretty enough 

 to tempt a lover, or good enough to win one, had, just at that 

 moment, peered out from her covert in the poisonous foxglove's 

 bell. Her keen eyes beheld the whole affair, and with the speed 

 of malice, she had flown to the queen with the tale. Titania 

 was in a particularly ungracious mood, for one of the stateliest 

 of the fays, whom she would fain have kept at her feet until he 

 had won some favor, flew off" at the precise moment when she 

 had decided that it would not be inconsistent with propriety to 

 allow him to kiss her hand. Under such circumstances, the tale 

 of Oberon's misconduct was received with double indignation. 

 The elfin monarch obtained timely notice of the gathering storm 

 from his faithful Puck, and spreading his winglets on the night- 



