They are
wholly unshackled, further than that you are to repay by installments
the money expended in the building of the house. This I am empowered
to state to you, and I think you will allow that Mr. Heatherstone has
fully acted up to what he stated were his views when he first obtained
a grant of the property."
"He has, indeed," replied Edward.
"As for his daughter, Edward, you have yet to 'win her and wear her,'
as the saying is. Her father will resign the property to you as yours
by right, but you have no property in his daughter, and I suspect that
she will not be quite so easily handed over to you."
"But why should you say so, Humphrey? Have we not been attached from
our youth?"
"Yes, it was a youthful passion, I grant; but recollect nothing came
of it, and years have passed away. It is now seven years since you
quitted the forest, and in your letters to Mr. Heatherstone you made
no remark upon what had passed between you and Patience. Since that,
you have never corresponded or sent any messages; and you can hardly
expect that a girl, from the age of seventeen to twenty-four, will
cherish the image of one, who, to say the least, had treated her with
indifference. That is my view of the matter, Edward. It may be wrong.
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