‘She continued to live with her uncle, in the 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 her 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 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 .  But ’twas easy to admit—a slight “fine,” as ’twas called, of a few pounds, was enough to entitle him to 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 niece and only relative than a sure house over her head, and Netty’s uncle should have seen to the in time, owing to the custom of by the dropping of the last life before the new fine was paid; for the was very anxious to get hold of the house and land; and every Sunday when the old man came into the church and passed the Squire’s pew, the Squire would say, “A little weaker in his knees, a little crookeder in his back—and the readmittance not for: ha! ha!  I shall be able to make a complete clearing of that corner of the manor some day!”
 
‘’Twas extraordinary, now we look back upon it, that old Sargent should have been so ; yet some people are like it; and he put off calling at the Squire’s agent’s office with the fine week after week, saying to himself, “I shall have more time next market-day than I have now.”  One unfortunate was that he didn’t very well like Jasper Cliff; and as Jasper kept urging Netty, and Netty on that account kept urging her uncle, the old man was inclined to the re-liveing as long as he could, to spite the selfish young lover.  At last old Mr. Sargent fell ill, and then Jasper could bear it no longer: he produced the fine-money himself, and handed it to Netty, and to her plainly.
 
‘“You and your uncle ought to know better.  You should press him more.  There’s the money.  If you let the house and ground slip between ye, I won’t marry; hang me if I will!  For folks won’t deserve a husband that can do such things.”
 
‘The worried girl took the money and went home, and told her uncle that it was no house no husband for her.  Old Mr. Sargent pooh-poohed the money, for the amount was not worth consideration, but he did now bestir himself; for he saw she was upon marrying Jasper, and he did not wish to make her unhappy, since she was so .  It was much to the Squire’s that he found Sargent had moved in the matter at last; but he could not it, and the documents were prepared (for on this manor the copy-holders had writings with their holdings, though on some they had none).  Old Sargent being now too feeble to go to the agent’s house, the deed was to be brought to his house signed, and handed over as a receipt for the money; the counterpart to be signed by Sargent, and sent back to the Squire.
 
‘The agent had promised to call on old Sargent for this purpose at five o’clock, and Netty put the money into her desk to have it close at hand.  While doing this she heard a slight cry from her uncle, and turning round, saw that he had fallen forward in his chair.  She went and lifted him, but he was unconscious; and unconscious he remained.  Neither medicine nor would bring him to himself.  She had been told that he might possibly go off in that way, and it seemed as if the end had come.  Before she had started for a doctor his face and grew quite cold and white, and she saw that help would be useless.  He was stone-dead.
 
‘Netty’s situation rose upon her distracted mind in all its seriousness.  The house, garden, and field were lost—by a few hours—and with them a home for herself and her lover.  She would not think so meanly of Jasper as to suppose that he would adhere to the resolution declared in a moment of ; but she trembled, nevertheless.  Why could not her uncle have lived a couple of hours longer, since he had lived so long?  It was now past three o’clock; at five the agent was to call, and, if all had gone well, by ten minutes past five the house and holding would have been securely hers for her own and Jasper’s lives, these being two of the three proposed to be added by paying the fine.  How that wretched old Squire would rejoice at getting the little tenancy into his hands!  He did not really require it, but constitutionally hated these tiny copyholds and and freeholds, which made islands of independence in the fair, smooth ocean of his estates.
 
‘Then an idea struck into the head of Netty how to accomplish her object in spite of her uncle’s .  It was a dull December afternoon: and the first step in her scheme—so the story goes, and I see no reason to doubt it—’
 
‘’Tis true as the light,’ affirmed Christopher Twink.  ‘I was just passing by.’
 
‘The first step in her scheme was to fasten the outer door, to make sure of not being interrupted.  Then she set to work by placing her uncle’s small, heavy oak table before the fire; then she went to her uncle’s , sitting in the chair as he had died—a stuffed arm-chair, on casters, and rather high in the seat, so it was told me—and wheeled the chair, uncle and all, to the table, placing him with his back toward the window, in the attitude of bending over the said oak table, which I knew as a boy as well as I know any piece of furniture in my own house.  On the table she laid the large family Bible open before him, and placed his on the page; and then she opened his a bit, and put on him his spectacles, so that from behind he appeared for all the world as if he were reading the .  Then she unfastened the door and sat down, and when it grew dark she lit a candle, and put it on the table beside her uncle’s book.
 
‘Folk may well guess how the time passed with her till the agent came, and how, when his knock sounded upon the door, she nearly started out of her skin—at least that’s as it was told me.  Netty went to the door.
 
‘“I am sorry, sir,” she says, under her breath; “my uncle is not so well to-night, and I’m afraid he can’t see you.”
 
‘“H’m!—that’s a pretty tale,” says the .  “So I’ve come all this way about this little job for nothing!”
 
‘“O no, sir—I hope not,” says Netty.  “I suppose the business of grant............