"Well," said Ann, "the story is that when the monks were driven out, King Henry VIII gave it to a certain Reginald De Lisle."
"How did that old man at Greenwich know anything; about them, I wonder?" said Agnes. "How did he know the De Lisles?"
"That I cannot tell," said Ann. "He may have been an old servant, and have known the legend that the De Lisles, being possessed of church lands, would be driven out."
"It has come true," said Agnes.
"Only to a certain extent," said Ann. "They were not driven out, they died out; the race is extinct."
"How then can they come back again?" asked Agnes. "You know he said they would."
"Ah! that I cannot tell," answered Ann. "If he were an old servant of the De Lisles, the wish might very possibly be father to the thought."
"But," said Agnes thoughtfully, "supposing it were a mistake, and that one day a De Lisle should turn up and claim his own?"
"I do not suppose it would make much difference now," said Ann. "The land is ours as far as lawyers and parchment can make it so."
"You would be sorry to lose it," said Agnes.