"Then we're the neighbors that are to be friends."
"If we are to be we are to be.... I want a friend.... I don't know if you're the one that is to answer."
The other dropped beside him upon the heath. "I saw you walking along the hilltop. So when you did not come on I thought I'd climb and meet you. This is a lonely, miserable country!"
Alexander was moved to defend. "There are more miserable! It's got its points."
"I don't see them. I want London!"
"That's Babylon.—It's your own country. You're evening it with England!"
"No, I'm not. But you can't deny that it's poor."
"There's one of its sons, named Touris, that is not poor!"
Rullock rose upon one knee. "The wise man gets rich and the fool stays poor. Do you want to be friends or do you want to fight?"
Alexander clasped his hands behind his head and lay back upon the earth. "No, I do not want to fight—not now! I wouldn't fight you, anyhow, for standing up for one to whom you're beholden."