These wayward fancies fall on men as they get better of sickness; and I must go tonight to that ruined house of which I spoke to thee, to fetch a pocket compass Master Ratsey was to put there.

So thou canst come with me and smell the night air on the Down.' He had agreed more readily than I looked for, and so I pushed the matter, saying: 'Nay, master, grant me leave to go yet a little farther afield.

You know that I was born in Moonfleet, and have been bred there all my life, and love the trees and stream and very stones of it.

And I have set my heart on seeing it once more before we leave these parts for good and all.

So give me leave to walk along the Down and look on Moonfleet but this once, and in this ploughboy guise I shall be safe enough, and will come back to you tomorrow night' He looked at me a moment without speaking; and all the while I felt he saw me through and through, and yet he was not angry.