One day, however, his luck took a decided turn for the better: the most beautiful maiden he had ever seen agreed to engage him as a music teacher.  He accompanied her to her house, where he gave her a one-hour lute lesson, ending it by singing one of his love songs to her.

"Well, how much do I owe you?" she asked him.

"From so fair a maiden as you, one kiss would be sufficient compensation," he answered gallantly, for money, after all, was not his primary objective.

"Very well," she said coyly, "you may kiss my hand."

Ned was disappointed.  "I was hoping to be permitted at least to peck you on the cheek," he grumbled.

The maiden laughed haughtily and said, "Come again and give me another lesson at the same time next week, and then you may have that reward.  Now take the reward I offered you today and do it quickly, before I change my mind, and be off with you!"  Ned did, and then returned to the street in eager anticipation of their next meeting.

Ned began the next lesson by asking Belinda - for that was the maiden's name - to play for him the things he had taught her.  "You haven't been practising your lesson!" he scolded her.

"Surely you aren't coming here solely for the pleasure of hearing me play well!" she said with a laugh.  She did have a point there, he thought.  He taught her what she was willing to learn, sang her another love song, collected his peck on the cheek and left with the promise of better things to come.

As the days went by, Belinda made painfully slow progress on the lute, and Ned made equally slow progress with Belinda.  But given enough time, drops of water can carve out a canyon, glaciers can cover a continent, and ardent suitors can reach their objective.  Ned's objective was not to take Belinda to bed with him; it was to marry her.  He was afraid to pop the question too soon lest he frighten her away altogether, but he counted on her very coyness to give him the necessary opportunity: sooner or later she would have to tell him that she was saving herself for her husband, at which point he would gallantly say that this was the very thing he most wanted to become.

Events followed the very script he had imagined until the moment when he finally got to recite the line he had been rehearsing for months: "Will you marry me?"

But Belinda had added an unexpected twist to his script: "First you must prove yourself worthy of me.  In the forest a few miles north of the town there lives a wicked witch who plays the nastiest tricks on me!  Why, once, for instance, she made all my clothes disappear in the middle of a crowded square!  After that the townspeople drove her away, but she'll be back!  She's so insanely envious of my beauty that she'll never leave me alone as long as she lives.  How I wish I were rid of her!  None of my other suitors is clever enough to be able to take on such a formidable opponent.  I had just about given up hope when I heard about a marvellous musician who had recently arrived in town, and when I went to hear you I became certain that a man who could write such wonderful music and play it so well must surely be extremely clever.  You must surely have read about the story-teller who slew the hundred-eyed dragon after first putting it to sleep with his stories.  And you must surely have already thought of putting this witch to sleep with your songs, knocking her out with your lute and then strangling her.  Do this for me, and I will gladly marry you."

Now Ned had never thought of himself as being particularly clever.  He had never read that story - in fact, he had never learned to read - and he would never have thought of inflicting such a terrible punishment for the sort of prank Belinda had recounted.  But he was most anxious to impress her with his cleverness; so her said, "Yes, yes, of course, you took the words right out of my mouth.  I'll get to it right away."

On his way out of town he formulated a plan.  He would keep searching until he found the witch; then he would charm her with his music and try to persuade her to leave Belinda in peace.  If he succeeded, he could pretend to Belinda that he'd done her bidding; if not, he'd have no choice but to try to do it for real.