What befooled me was to think of it as my property! And I had made it mine--no one else had studied it as I had, no one else understood it.

What does that stick of a Casamassima know about it at this hour?
I should like to see it just once more; it 's the only thing in the world of which I can say so." "I would not advise it," Rowland repeated.
"That 's right, dear Rowland," said Roderick; "don't advise! That 's no use now." The dusk meanwhile had thickened, and they had not perceived a figure approaching them across the open space in front of the house.

Suddenly it stepped into the circle of light projected from the door and windows, and they beheld little Sam Singleton stopping to stare at them.

He was the giant whom they had seen descending along the rocks.

When this was made apparent Roderick was seized with a fit of intense hilarity--it was the first time he had laughed in three months.