"I was never more earnest in my life!" he vowed, with that gay, mad, merry laugh of his, "a dance with you here in the moonlight! Aye! a dance in the midst of my dreams!" "But indeed, indeed, sir," she pleaded, "the hour is late and my business in London is very urgent." "Nay, ten minutes for this dance will not much delay your journey, and I swear by your sweet eyes that after that you shall go unmolested." "But if I refuse?" "An you refuse," he said, bending the knee before her, and bowing humbly at her feet, "I will entreat you on my knees..." "And if I still refuse?" she murmured. "Then will I uproot the trees, break the carriage that bears you away, tear up the Heath and murder yon knaves! God in heaven only knows what I would _not_ do an you refuse." "No, no, sir, I pray you..." she said, alarmed at his vehemence, puzzled, fascinated, carried away by his wild, reckless mood and the potent spell of the witching moon. "Nay! how can I refuse? ... I am in your power ... and must do as you bid me.... An you really wish for a dance..." She allowed him to lead her away to a short distance off the beaten track, there, where a carpet of ling and grass, and walls of bramble and gorse formed a ball-room fit for gods and goddesses to dance in. At the further end of this clearing the quaint, shrivelled figure of Jock Miggs, the shepherd, had just come into view. At a little distance to the left, and close to the roadside, there was a small wooden shed, and beyond it a pen, used by the shepherds as a shelter on rough nights when tending their sheep on the Heath. For the moment the pen was empty, and Jock Miggs was evidently making his way to the hut for a few hours’ sleep, and had been playing his pipe for the sake of company. "Aye! a dance here!" said Beau Brocade, "with the moon and stars to light us, a shepherd to play the tune, and the sprites that haunt the Heath for company! What ho! there! friend shepherd!" he shouted to Miggs. The worthy Jock caught sight of the two figures standing in the centre of the clearing, not twenty paces away from him. "Lud have mercy upon me!" he gasped. "Robbery! Violence! Murder!" "Nay, friend! only merry-making," quoth Beau Brocade, gaily. "We want to dance upon this Heath, and you to play the tune for us." "Eh? what?" muttered the shepherd, in his vague, apologetic way, "dancing at this hour o’ the night?" "Aye!" "And me to play for a parcel of mad folk?" "Well said, honest shepherd! Let us all be mad to-night! but you shall play for us, and here!—here is the wherewithal to set your pipe in tune." He threw a heavy purse across to Miggs, who, still muttering something about lunatics on the Heath, slowly stooped and picked it up. "Guineas!" he muttered, weighing it in his hand, "guineas, as I live! Guineas for playing a dance tune. Nay, sir, you’re mad, sure enough." "Wilt play the tune, shepherd?" shouted Beau Brocade in wild impatience.