Meanings of sportive fancy in English

Their sportive fancy that they were guests in the hotel and nothing ailed the world just then held true.

Not less tender and fond than before, his sportive fancy indulged in infinite expressions of playful humour and delicate pranks of love.

They contain my jests, my sportive fancies, my loves, sorrows, displeasures and wrath, described sometimes in a humble, sometimes in a lofty strain.

"The fact remains that you're in a different position now and can't afford a free rein to your sportive fancies."

"Of course he did," he replied with an indulgent smile, while the light of sportive fancy gleamed behind his blear eyes.