He gave him news of Chelsea.
"They are not very merry there," he said, "and I hardly suppose you would wish them to be." "Why not ?" cried More, with a beaming face, "I am merry enough.

I would not be a monk; so God hath compelled me to be one, and treats me as one of His own spoilt children.

He setteth me on His lap and dandleth me.

I have never been so happy." He told Ralph presently that his chief sorrow was that he could not go to mass or receive the sacraments.

The Lieutenant, Sir Edward Walsingham, who had been his friend, had told him that he would very gladly have given him liberties of this kind, but that he dared not, for fear of the King's displeasure.
"But I told him," said More, "not to trouble himself that I liked his cheer well enough as it was, and if ever I did not he was to put me out of his doors." After a little more talk he showed Ralph what he was writing.