But it was Angela herself who at last found her. She had decided not to drive in her carriage, for the sound of wheels, and the rhythmic beat of the ponies' feet might startle the girl, and if she really meant to hide, might make her hide all the more securely. No, she would walk. So she gathered up her white skirt and walked down the summer lanes. By-and-by she thought she heard a noise which was different from the song of the birds, and the rushing of the waters, and the varied hum of innumerable bees. She stood quite still. It was the sound of distress, it was a sob, and the sob seemed to come from the throat of a girl. Angela stepped very softly. She went over the long grass and came to a tree, and at the foot of that tree lay a girl, her face downward, her whole figure shaken with sobs. Angela laid her hand on her. "Why, Nesta!" she said. "How silly of Nesta to be afraid." The words were so unexpected that Nesta jumped to her feet; then covered her face, then flung herself face downwards again and sobbed more piteously than ever. "I have found you, Nesta, and nobody is going to be in the least bit angry with you. May I sit by you for a little?" "You are Miss St Just--you are the person everybody worships and makes a fuss over. I don't want you. Go away." "I am sorry you don't want me, but I am not going away. I am going to stay by you; may I?" Nesta could not refuse. Angela sat down. Ben and Dan peeped their round childish faces over the top of the hedge and saw Angela sitting by Nesta's side. "Hooray!" said Ben. "Hurroa!" said Dan. Angela turned. "Go back to your mother, boys. Here is a penny for you, Dan, and another for you, Ben. Go back to your mother, and say that I have found my friend, Miss Nesta Aldworth, and am taking her back to Castle Walworth." This was a most awe-inspiring message; the boys, young as they were, understood some of its grand import. They rushed presently into their mother's cottage. "You be a little flat, mammy!" they said. "Why, the gel you give red herrings to, and no butter, is a friend of our Miss Angela's." "The Lord forgive me!" said Mrs Hogg, and she forgot all about her washing, and sat down on the first chair she could find, and let her broad toil-worn hands spread themselves out one on each knee. "The Lord forgive me!" she said at intervals. Ben was deeply touched. He went and bought some fruit with his penny and pressed it on his mother, but she scarcely seemed to see it. "To think as I complained to her of robbing me of half my rightful bedclothes," was her next remark. "May I see myself in my true light in the future. How could I tell? How _could_ I tell?"