ect women, but how long they will do that one
cannot know."

"It may all be so. It _must_ be so, respecting what I have heard and
read; yet this vale looks as smiling and as sweet, at this very moment,
as if an evil passion never sullied it! But, depend on my prudence,
which tells me that we ought now to part. I shall see you again and
again before I quit the estate, and you will, of course, join us
somewhere--at the Springs, perhaps--as soon as we find it necessary or
expedient to decamp."

Martha promised this, of course, and I kissed her, previously to
separating. No one crossed my way as I descended to the piazza, which
was easily done, since I was literally at home. I lounged about on the
lawn a few minutes, and then, showing myself in front of the library
windows, I was summoned to the room, as I had expected.

Uncle Ro had disposed of every article of the fine jewelry that he had
brought home as presents for his wards. The pay was a matter to be
arranged with Mrs. Littlepage, which meant no pay at all; and, as the
donor afterwards told me, he liked this mode of distributing the various
ornaments better than presenting them himself, as he was now certain
each girl had consulted her own fancy.

As the hour of the regular dinner was approaching, we took our leave
soon after, not without receiving kind and pressing invitations to
visit the Nest again ere we left the township. Of course we promised all
that was required, intending most faithfully to comply. On quitting the
house we returned towards the farm, though not without pausing on the
lawn to gaze around us on a scene so dear to both, from recollection,
association, and interest. But I forget, this is aristocratical; the
landlord has no right to sentiments of this nature, which are feelings
that the sublimated liberty of the law is beginning to hold in reserve
solely for the benefit of the tenant!

CHAPTER XII.

"There shall be, in England, seven halfpenny loaves sold for a
penny: the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make
it felony to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in common, and
in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to grass."

_Jack Cade._

"I do not see, sir," I remarked, as we moved on from the last of these
pauses, "why the governors and legislators, and writers on this subject
of anti-rentism, talk so much of feudality, and chickens, and days'
works, and durable leases, when we have none of these