The fourth day—he could bear it no longer—he rode past the farm twenty times and more; at length he was fortunate enough to see Farmer Noel, and throwing the reins on his horse's neck he got down and went up to him.
"Have you a dog to sell?" he asked. "Some one told me you had very fine dogs."
"I have good dogs, but none to sell," replied the farmer.
"I want a dog, and I would give a good price for a good one," he said. "Will you let me see yours?"
"Yes, you can see them, but you cannot buy them," said Robert Noel; and the next scene was the handsome young lordling going round the farm, with the stalwart, stolid farmer.
He won the farmer's heart by his warm praises of the farm, the cattle, the dogs, and everything else he saw; still there was no Leone.
"I am very thirsty; should you think me very impertinent if I asked you for a glass of cider?" he said; and the farmer, flattered by the request, took him into the little parlor. He looked at his visitor in simple wonder.
"They say you are a great lord's son," he said; "but if you are, you have no pride about you."
Lord Chandos laughed; and the farmer called Leone. There was a pause, during which the young lord's heart beat and his face flushed.
"Leone," cried the farmer again.