took him into North
Wood, and showed him her work. Richard Bassett's plantation, hitherto
divided from North Wood only by a boundary scarcely visible, was now
shut off by a brick wall: on Sir Charles's side of that wall every
stick of timber was felled and removed for a distance of fifty yards,
and about twenty yards from the wall a belt of larches was planted, a
little higher than cabbages.

Sir Charles looked amazed at first, but soon observed how thoroughly
his enemy was defeated. "My poor Bella," said he, "to think of your
taking all this trouble about such a thing!" He stopped to kiss her
very tenderly, and she shone with joy and innocent pride. "And I never
thought of this! You astonish me, Bella."

"Ay," said she, in high spirits now; "and, what is more, I have
astonished Mr. Moss. He said, 'I wish I had your head-piece, my lady.'
I could have told him Love sharpens a woman's wits; but I reserved that
little adage for you."

"It's all mighty fine, fair lady, but you have told me a fib. You said
it was to be all for yourself, and got a hundred pounds out of me."

"And so it was for myself, you silly thing. Are you not myself? and the
part of myself I love the best?" And her supple wrist was round his
neck in a moment.

They rode home together, like lovers, and comforted each other.

Richard Bassett, with Wheeler's assistance, had borrowed money on
Highmore to buy "Splatchett's"; he now borrowed money on
"Splatchett's," and bought Dean's Wood--a wood, with patches of grass,
that lay on the east of Sir Charles's boundary. He gave seventeen
hundred pounds for it, and sold two thousand pounds' worth of timber
off it the first year. This sounds incredible; but, owing to the custom
of felling only ripe trees, landed proprietors had no sure clew to the
value of all the timber on an acre. Richard Bassett had found this out,
and bought Dean's Wood upon the above terms--_i.e.,_ the vender gave
him the soil and three hundred pounds gratis. He grubbed the roots and
sold them for fuel, and planted larches to catch the overflow of Sir
Charles's game. The grass grew beautifully, now the trees were down,
and he let it for pasture.

He then, still under Wheeler's advice, came out into the world again,
improved his dress, and called on several county families, with a view
to marrying money.

Now in the country they do not despise a poor gentleman of good
lineage, and Bassett was one of the oldest names in the county;