"It makes men mad, they say." I smiled.

Had madness been my destiny, I should have gone mad last night, I thought! "Have no fear!" I answered him, gently.

"The moonlight is a joy to me--it has no impression on my mind save that of peace.

I shall rest well here, my friend--do not trouble yourself about me." He hesitated and then abruptly left me, to return in the space of two or three minutes with a thick rug of sheepskin.

He insisted so earnestly on my accepting this covering as a protection from the night air, that, to please him, I yielded to his entreaties and lay down, wrapped in its warm folds.