They passed that evening together without any reference to the scene on the rock, or any allusion to their own peculiar troubles.  Clara, though she would not admit to Mrs Askerton that she was going away from the place for ever, was not the less aware that such might very probably be the case.  She had no longer any rights of ownership at Belton Castle, and all that had taken place between her and her cousin tended to make her feel that under no circumstances could she again reside there.  Nor was it probable that she would be able to make to Mrs Askerton the visit of which they had been talking.  If Lady Aylmer were wise so Clara thought there would be no mention of Mrs Askerton at Aylmer Park; and, if so, of course she would not outrage her future husband by proposing to go to a house of which she knew that he disapproved.  If Lady Aylmer were not wise if she should take upon herself the task of rebuking Clara for her friendship then, in such circumstances as those, Clara believed that the visit to Mrs Askerton might be possible.

But she determined that she would leave the home in which she had been born, and had passed so many happy and so many unhappy days, as though she were never to see it again.  All her packing had been done, down to the last fragment of an old letter that was stuffed into her writing-desk; but, nevertheless, she went about the house with a candle in her hand, as though she were still looking that nothing had been omitted, while she was in truth saying farewell in her heart to every corner which she knew so well.  When at last she came down to pour out for her desolate cousin his cup of tea, she declared that everything was done.  ‘You may go to work now, Will,’ she said, and do what you please with the old place.  My jurisdiction is over.’

‘Not altogether,’ said he.  He no longer spoke like a despairing lover.  Indeed there was a smile round his mouth, and his voice was cheery.

’Yes altogether.  I give over my sovereignty from this moment and a dirty dilapidated sovereignty it is.’

‘That’s all very well to say.’

’And also very well to do.  What best pleases me in going to Aylmer Castle just now is the power it gives me of doing at once that which otherwise I might have put off till the doing of it had become much more unpleasant.  Mr Belton, there is the key of the cellar which I believe gentlemen always regard as the real sign of possession.  I don’t advise you to trust much to the contents.’  He took the key from her, and without saying a word chucked it across the room on to an old sofa.  ’If you won’t take it, you had better, at any rate, have it tied up with the others,’ she said.

‘I dare say you’ll know where to find it when you want it,’ he answered.

‘I shall never want it.’

‘Then it’s as well there as anywhere else.’

‘But you won’t remember, Will.’

‘I don’t suppose I shall have occasion for remembering.’  Then he paused a moment before he went on.  ’I have told you before that I do not intend to take possession of the place.  I do not regard it as mine at all.’