Page:Life's little ironies (1894).pdf/274

"She continued to live with her uncle, in tha lonely house by the copse, just as at the time you knew her; a tall, spry young woman. Ah, how well one can remember her black hair and dancing eyes at that time, and ber sly way of screwing up her mouth when she meant to tease ye! Well, she was hardly out of short frocks before the chaps were after her, and by long and by late she was courted by a young man whom perhaps you did not know—Jasper Cliff was his name —and, though she might have had many a better fellow, he so greatly took her fancy that 'twas Jasper or nobody for her. He was a selfish customer, always thinking less of what he was going to do than of what he was going to gain by his doings. Jasper's eyes might have been fixed upon Netty, but his mind was upon her uncle's house; though he was fond of her in his way—I admit that.

"This house, built by her great-great-grandfather, with its garden and little field, was copyhold—granted upon lives in the old way, and had been so granted for generations. Her uncle’s was the last life upon the property, so that at his death, if there was no admittance of new lives, it would all fall into the hands of the lord of the manor. But 'twas easy to admit—a slight 'fine,' as twas called, of a few pounds, was enough to entitle him toe a new deed o' grant by the custom of the manor; and the lord could not hinder it.

"Now, there could be no better provision for his