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."

Silence fell between them, each having eyes upon the other. Something
drew each to each, something repelled each from each. It was a
question, between those forces, which would gain. Alexander did not
feel strange with Ian, nor Ian with Alexander. It was as though they
had met before. But how they had met and why, and where and when, and
what that meeting had entailed and meant, was hidden from their gaze.
The attractive increased over the repellent. Ian spoke.