"Didn't much s'pose you would—not expectin'. It's hard on twenty-seven years since you and me met. And you wasn't over-much perlite to me then, neither. You and your missus didn't think I was fit for your pretty Molly. Nor I wasn't. But all the same—"

The farmer fell back a step.

"Yes—I'm him. You know me now."

"Phil—Morris!"

"Same!" He held out his hand.

"But—but I say!—we thought you'd been dead, years and years ago."

"Well, I wasn't—that's all. I'm alive now."

"Molly said you'd been drowned—out in South America."

"Told that, was she? Wonder however she heard! Did she mind?" He showed interest.

"Why, of course she minded."