And my gallant Captain seemed to retire, as it were, again into his shell, saying he would speak of her no more, and that indeed he knew not wherefore he had called her to mind. Whereto I said that maybe I could tell him.
"'T is little likely," said he, smiling as one that suffers the gambols of a merry child, even to the peril of a wound but half healed.
"But tell you I can," I persisted; "you spoke of her, not because she did come to your mind, but because she is never out of it. Is it not so?"
Again he looked at me with that glance of enquiry.
"Indeed, I think it is so," he replied; "but how you should know it, Master——, by my life, here have I had all manner of converse with you, even to the telling things that have not passed my lips this three years, and yet I know not your name. Prithee, tell it me."
"My name is Drayton," I said.
"Is it even so?" cried Ned. "It is strange. Where do you live?"
"From here some five leagues on the great road, Salisbury way," I answered.
"At Drayton Manor, is it?" he asked with great eagerness.
"At Drayton Manor," I replied.