The longing which had been upon him and driven him thus far, like the gad-fly in the Greek legends, giving him no rest in mind or body, seemed all of a sudden not to be satisfied, but to shrivel up and pall.

"Why should I go on?
It's no use," he thought, and threw himself at full length on the turf, and looked vaguely and listlessly at all the well-known objects.

There were a few of the town boys playing cricket, their wicket pitched on the best piece in the middle of the big-side ground--a sin about equal to sacrilege in the eyes of a captain of the eleven.

He was very nearly getting up to go and send them off.

"Pshaw! they won't remember me.