Methought there was another here,
but it must have been this holy man talking to himself."
So Robin lay watching the Friar, and the Friar, all unknowing that he
was so overlooked, ate his meal placidly. At last he was done, and,
having first wiped his greasy hands upon the ferns and wild thyme (and
sweeter napkin ne'er had king in all the world), he took up his flask
and began talking to himself as though he were another man, and
answering himself as though he were somebody else.
"Dear lad, thou art the sweetest fellow in all the world, I do love thee
as a lover loveth his lass. La, thou dost make me shamed to speak so to
me in this solitary place, no one being by, and yet if thou wilt have me
say so, I do love thee as thou lovest me. Nay then, wilt thou not take
a drink of good Malmsey? After thee, lad, after thee. Nay, I beseech
thee, sweeten the draught with thy lips (here he passed the flask from
his right hand to his left). An thou wilt force it on me so, I must
needs do thy bidding, yet with the more pleasure do I so as I drink thy
very great health (here he took a long, deep draught).
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