e. They asked him
if he remembered Netty Sargent.

'Netty Sargent--I do, just remember her. She was a young woman living
with her uncle when I left, if my childish recollection may be trusted.'

'That was the maid. She was a oneyer, if you like, sir. Not any harm in
her, you know, but up to everything. You ought to hear how she got the
copyhold of her house extended. Oughtn't he, Mr. Day?'

'He ought,' replied the world-ignored old painter.

'Tell him, Mr. Day. Nobody can do it better than you, and you know the
legal part better than some of us.'

Day apologized, and began:--

NETTY SARGENT'S COPYHOLD

'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 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 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 renewal in time, owing to the peculiar custom of forfeiture by the
dropping of the last life before the new fine was paid; for the Squire
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