Eight
I sat there, on the grass by the stream among the water flowers with thelittle paths and the stepping stones all round us. A good many other peoplewere sitting round about us, but we didn’t notice them or even see theywere there, because we were like all the others. Young couples, talkingabout their future. I stared at her and stared at her. I just couldn’t speak.
“Mike,” she said. “There’s something, something I’ve got to tell you.
Something about me, I mean.”
“You don’t need to,” I said, “no need to tell me anything.”
“Yes, but I must. I ought to have told you long ago but I didn’t want tobecause—because I thought it might drive you away. But it explains in away, about Gipsy’s Acre.”
“You bought it?” I said. “But how did you buy it?”
“Through lawyers,” she said, “the usual way. It’s a perfectly¹ good invest-ment, you know. The land will appreciate. My lawyers were quite happyabout it.”
It was odd suddenly to hear Ellie, the gentle and timid² Ellie, speakingwith such knowledge and confidence of the business world of buying andselling.
“You bought it for us?”
“Yes. I went to a lawyer of my own, not the family one. I told him what Iwanted to do, I got him to look into it, I got everything set up and in train.
There were two other people after it but they were not really desperateand they wouldn’t go very high. The important thing was that the wholething had to be set up and arranged ready for me to sign as soon as I cameof age. It’s signed and finished.”
“But you must have made some deposit³ or something beforehand⁴. Hadyou enough money to do that?”
“No,” said Ellie, “no, I hadn’t control of much money beforehand, but ofcourse there are people who will advance you money. And if you go to anew firm of legal advisers⁵, they will want you to go on employing them forbusiness deals once you’ve come into what money you’re going to have sothey’re willing to take the risk that you might drop down dead before yourbirthday comes.”

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