‘God forbid,’ said his wife, as she busied herself with looking after her guests. They were soon started on another subject. Farmer Owen had had an uncommonly heavy crop of hay that year, and as most husbandmen had lost theirs through the drought, his good luck, and the way he had secured it, formed a grand subject of conversation between him and Mr Llewellyn. The little bride had not half exhausted her tales of the wonders she had been introduced to in London, and they were all in full chatter, asking questions and answering them, when Hugh Owen said suddenly,-- ‘Who’s this coming down the glen?’ All eyes were instantly directed towards the steep hill which led to the farmhouse, and down which a tall female figure was walking with rather slow footsteps. ‘It’s a lady,’ quoth Mrs Llewellyn, wonderingly. ‘Whoever can she be? It’s a stranger. I’ve never seen her in Usk before.’ The woman was dressed very plainly, but she seemed to wear her clothes differently from the common herd. She raised her head every now and then, expectantly, and yet timidly, and during one of these movements Hetty caught sight of her face. ‘Mother,’ she screamed, as she jumped up from her seat, ‘it’s our Nell!’ ‘_Nell!_’ echoed her mother. ‘Never!’ But Hetty had already left the house, and, meeting the advancing figure, had thrown both her arms around it. ‘Nell! Nell!’ she cried. ‘Oh, Nell, we were just talking of you. What joy it is to welcome you home.’ She seized her two hands and dragged her along till she stood in the midst of the astonished group. ‘Mother, can’t you see? It is our Nell. She has got her holiday at last, and has come to spend it with us.’ ‘Yes, at last!’ exclaimed Nell, as she fell into her mother’s opened arms. ‘Mother, I’ve come home, and I never mean to leave you again.’ At first, in their delight and surprise at her unexpected appearance, they could do nothing but kiss her and gaze at her; but when their excitement had somewhat subsided, all their anxiety was to hear why Nell had not given them warning of her return, and when she was going back to her situation again. ‘Going back,’ she echoed, with a shrill laugh; ‘I’m _never_ going back at all, mother. I’m going to live with you now, and help you as Hetty used to do. I shall never go back unless you tell me you don’t want me.’ Her mother’s only answer was to cry over her, and say how much she had longed for her return, but Hetty was gazing at her sister with amazement. What had happened to her since they had parted in London? Nell was as pale as death; she almost looked thinner than when she had seen her last; her eyes were abnormally large, and there were dark lines under them. Above all, there was a harsh shrillness in her voice which she had not noticed before.