"'Twill give you trouble now," he remarked, "but 'twill save trouble in the end. Let me see them put back again." Milly looked at May in wonder. To argue the matter was her first thought; but May acted. "They be only in the next room, with other things to be sold," she said. "You can see them again, uncle, if you mind to." Rupert spoke while she was from the room. "Why don't you buy 'em, uncle? They'd look fine at your place." "Put 'em back on the shelf," answered Mr. Baskerville. "And, what's more, you may, or may not, be glad to know they can stop there. 'Tis a matter of no account at all, and I won't have no talk about it, but you can feel yourself free to stay, Hester, if you'd rather not make a change at your time of life. You must settle it with Rupert and your darter. In a word, I've had a tell with the owner of the farm and he's agreeable." "I know he's agreeable," answered Humphrey's nephew, "but I'm not agreeable to his rent." "If you'd keep your mouth shut till you'd heard me, 'twould be better. I was going to say that Mr. Westcott of Cann Quarries, who foreclosed on the mortgage of this place when your uncle died--Mr. Westcott is agreeable to let me have Cadworthy; and, in a word, Cadworthy's mine." May came in at this moment with the old china figures. She entered a profound silence, and returned the puppets to their old places on the mantelpiece. It seemed that this act carried with it support and confirmation of the startling thing that Hester Baskerville had just heard. Humphrey spoke again. "Past candle-teening, and snow offering from the north. I must be gone. Fetch up my pony, Rupert, and then you can travel a bit of the way back along with me." His nephew was glad to be gone. A highly emotional spirit began to charge the air. Hester had spoken to May, and her daughter, grown white and round-eyed, was trying to speak. "You mean--you mean we can all stop, and Rupert can go on here?" she said at last. "If he thinks it good enough. He'd bought back a bit of the place a'ready, as he thought, from Ned. I can go into all that with him. And for you women--well, you're used to the rounds of Cadworthy, and I'm used to your being here. You've done nought but trust a weak man. I don't want all the blue[2] to be off the plum for you yet. But I waited till now, because you'll see, looking back, that you'll be none the worse for smarting a few months. I've smarted all my life, and I'm not very much the worse, I suppose. So now I'll be gone, and you can unpack when you please." [2] _Blue_--bloom. They could not instantly grasp this great reversal of fortune. "Be you sure?" asked his niece. "Oh, uncle, be you sure?" "Sure and sure, and double sure. A very good investment, with a man like your brother Rupert to work it for me. But let him see the rent's paid on the nail." He rose, and Mrs. Baskerville tried to rise also, but her legs refused to carry her.