I only smiled at what she said, taking it to be a girlish fancy, and did not tell her why I wanted so much to be rich—­namely, to marry her one day.  Then, having talked long about my own concerns as selfishly as a man always does, I thought to ask after herself, and what she was going to do.  She told me that a month past lawyers had come to Moonfleet, and pressed her to leave the place, and they would give her in charge to a lady in London, because, said they, her father had died without a will, and so she must be made a ward of Chancery.  But she had begged them to let her be, for she could never live anywhere else than in Moonfleet, and that the air and commodity of the place suited her well.  So they went off, saying that they must take direction of the Court to know whether she might stay here or not, and here she yet was.  This made me sad, for all I knew of Chancery was that whatever it put hand on fell to ruin, as witness the Chancery Mills at Cerne, or the Chancery Wharf at Wareham; and certainly it would take little enough to ruin the Manor House, for it was three parts in decay already.

Thus we talked, and after that she put on a calico bonnet and picked me a dish of strawberries, staying to pull the finest, although the sun was beating down from mid-heaven, and brought me bread and meat from the house.  Then she rolled up a shawl to make me a pillow, and bade me lie down on the seat that ran round the summer-house and get to sleep, for I had told her that I had walked all night, and must be back again at the cave come midnight She went back to the house, and that was the most sweet and peaceful sleep that ever I knew, for I was very tired, and had this thought to soothe me as I fell asleep—­that I had seen Grace, and that she was so kind to me.

She was sitting beside me when I awoke and knitting a piece of work.  The heat of the day was somewhat less, and she told me that it was past five o’clock by the sun-dial; so I knew that I must go.  She made me take a packet of victuals and a bottle of milk, and as she put it into, my pocket the bottle struck on the butt of Maskew’s pistol, which I had in my bosom.  ‘What have you there?’ she said; but I did not tell her, fearing to call up bitter memories.

We stood hand in hand again, as we had done in the morning, and she said:  ’John, you will wander on the sea, and may perhaps put into Moonfleet.  Though you have not been here of late, I have kept a candle burning at the window every night, as in the past.  So, if you come to beach on any night you will see that light, and know Grace remembers you.  And if you see it not, then know that I am dead or gone, for I will think of you every night till you come back again.’  I had nothing to say, for my heart was too full with her sweet words and with the sorrow of parting, but only drew her close to me and kissed her; and this time she did not step back, but kissed me again.

Then I climbed up the fig-tree, thinking it safer so to get out over the wall than to go back to the front of the house, and as I sat on the wall ready to drop the other side, turned to her and said good-bye.