The ending

Bessie tells Harry that his father expects him to settle down and marry. Harry is furious: he will not be a tame rabbit in a cage.

From his window, Hagberd calls Harry a vagabond, and promises Bessie that Harry will marry her to-morrow, or he will disinherit him.

Harry realises that Bessie is 'the girl' his father has chosen. He jokes about staying a week, then asks her for money. She gives him a half-sovereign.

He kisses her passionately, and walks away into the dark. Bessie runs after him, calling 'Harry!', but she hears nothing: he is gone, as if lost in a stony country.

From his window, Hagberd chuckles: Bessie has frightened that fellow away. 'One day more,' he says. He is still waiting, happy in his hope. Then Carvil roars for her, and Bessie goes back to her little inferno.

The ending is bitterly ironic: hope survives in the man who is mad, while the sane woman, who for one moment saw a way out, is left with none.