Even now he had been brooding the anguish of Maestro Adamo who hears for ever Li ruscelletti che de' verdi colli Del Casentin discendon giuso in Arno--" and the music of the Tuscan fountains blended with the voice of this moorland stream.
There was a knock at the door; the maid-servant handed him a letter; it came from Piers.

The father read it, and, after a few lines, with grave visage.

Piers began by saying that, a day or two ago, he had all but resolved to run down to Hawes, for he had something very serious to speak about; on the whole, it seemed better to make the communication in writing.
"I have abandoned the examination, and all thought of the Civil Service.

If I invented reasons for this, you would not believe them, and you would think ill of me.

The best way is to tell you the plain truth, and run the risk of being thought a simpleton, or something worse.