'
I only smiled at what she said, taking it to be a girlish fancy, and did
not tell her why I wanted so much to be rich--namely, to marry her one
day. Then, having talked long about my own concerns as selfishly as a man
always does, I thought to ask after herself, and what she was going to
do. She told me that a month past lawyers had come to Moonfleet, and
pressed her to leave the place, and they would give her in charge to a
lady in London, because, said they, her father had died without a will,
and so she must be made a ward of Chancery. But she had begged them to
let her be, for she could never live anywhere else than in Moonfleet,
and that the air and commodity of the place suited her well. So they went
off, saying that they must take direction of the Court to know whether
she might stay here or not, and here she yet was. This made me sad, for
all I knew of Chancery was that whatever it put hand on fell to ruin, as
witness the Chancery Mills at Cerne, or the Chancery Wharf at Wareham;
and certainly it would take little enough to ruin the Manor House, for it
was three parts in decay already.
Thus we talked, and after that she put on a calico bonnet and picked me a
dish of strawberries, staying to pull the finest, although the sun was
beating down from mid-heaven, and brought me bread and meat from the
house.
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