It was, indeed! Many questions were asked, and answered. And they talked of earlier days at Longfields, of Longfields people, of what sort of men and women their playmates had become. More than all else, they talked of their old friendship and their various adventures together. And both laughed in recalling how Ruth in that distant period was mother, sister, aunt, governess and best girl to Cyrus. This revival of the old intimacy had reached a stage where the enshrouding darkness was almost forgotten. "But tell me, Drowsy," she demanded, "how came you here and why did you ask all those crazy questions? I should be sorry to think you had been dining too well." "Dining too well! No, my wabbly course just now was owing, partly, to not having dined at all:--and with neither lunch nor breakfast either." "You poor thing! Then why pretend you didn't know you were in England?" "There was no pretending. I really didn't know until you told me." "Indeed! And where did you think yourself? In Australia?" "I had no idea. If you had told me I was in Australia I should have believed you. I have been traveling so high above the earth that the upper ether went to my head--and legs." [Illustration: "----FAR AND FAST, EVEN FOR A BIRD MAN"--_Page 181_] "You must have been fast and far, even for a bird man, if you didn't know on which side of the ocean you had landed." There was a silence:--a silence of doubt and of budding suspicion in the woman's mind. "Listen, Ruth. I _have_ been far and fast, even for a bird man. I will tell you all about it later, if you don't mind. If I told you now, you would think me crazier, if possible, than when I asked those questions. And I shouldn't blame you. My story would seem as fantastic as if I had been around the world in a night, or to another planet. What I have done--where I have been is--is--so impossible that you would be a very credulous person to believe it. But later I will tell you all--everything--please consider me in my right mind." "In your right mind! Why, Drowsy, you were never in your right mind! So I should believe anything you told me--unless it was something easy or natural, like other people. You were always doing impossible things and thinking impossible thoughts--a most disturbing boy. I remember I always felt responsible for you. You wanted the moon--even then." "And now, a full-fledged lunatic, I have just come from the moon!" "I have no doubt you think so. And you were always reaching up to pick a star. Yes, you _were_ a trial." Cyrus laughed. "Will you do me a favor?" "Depends on what it is." "Just a little one?" "Probably not. But what is it?" "You remember our wedding at the Unitarian Church, away back in that enchanted past?" "Yes." "Well, just consider that ceremony binding." "Now you are getting crazy again." "No, I was never saner." "Very likely, but you are crazy now. Why, Drowsy, being only a man, you don't realize how lucky we are that it was not binding!"