‘My darling lass,’ said Mrs Llewellyn, ‘if you wait till your father and I bid you go, you’ll stay here for ever. But have you been ailing, Nell? Hetty, here, said you were looking so well. But you don’t look so to me. London air can’t agree with you to leave your cheeks so white and your lips so pale. Are you sure you are quite well, my lass? If not, your mother will nurse you till you are. She hasn’t lost much of her good looks, has she, Hugh?’ ‘Who’s that?’ said Nell, turning round. ‘What, my old sweetheart? How are you, Hugh? How are you Mrs Owen? I didn’t know mother had a tea-party, you see, or I would have come to-morrow instead of to-day.’ Then she suddenly burst into a wild fit of laughter. ‘Isn’t it funny to be sitting amongst you all again? I feel as if I had never left home. Ah, it’s a long time ago, isn’t it, mother? a long, weary while. But it’s over now, thank God, over for good and all. I mean to stay at dear Panty-cuckoo Farm for the rest of my life, and look after the dairy and the baking and the washing, and let dear mother sit down and rest. You’ll think I’ve forgotten all about it, mother, but you’ll find you’re mistaken. In two or three days, I shall have forgotten that I ever left Usk, and be as good a farm maid as ever.’ ‘Oh, Nell, my girl, you know how glad I shall be to have your help, but what made you think of coming home to give it me? I’m fairly puzzled what put it in your mind. Hetty understood you weren’t likely to get leave for a long time to come.’ ‘What put it in my mind?’ repeated Nell, with a repetition of her shrill laugh. ‘Why, Hetty to be sure. She drew such a pitiful picture of mother, left without a daughter to help in her dairy work, that I couldn’t resist the temptation to run home and give you all a surprise. Aren’t you glad to see me, father? Your bonnie girl, as you used to call me. I remember you were vexed enough when I decided to go out to service. You threatened to lock me up on bread and water.’ ‘Glad to have you back, lass? Ay, more glad than I can say. But I confess you’ve taken us rather by surprise. What did your master say to your leaving him in such a hurry? Wasn’t he a bit put out? Hetty said he had left you in charge of the house.’ Nell flushed suddenly like a scarlet rose. ‘So he did, but he’s altered his plans, and isn’t coming home now for a long time. And so, as a servant isn’t a slave, I’ve given him warning. He told me in his last letter I could leave London when I liked, and I liked to do so now--now, at once. I couldn’t stay. I wanted my mother. I wanted Panty-cuckoo Farm. I wanted you all--and rest, rest!’ She uttered the last words almost like a sigh. As they escaped her lips she turned and caught Hugh Owen’s eyes fixed on her. Nell threw back her head defiantly, as though she dared him to guess at anything she thought or felt.