It was some few days after the arrival of Lady Bryn Afon with her daughter at Glyn Melen, that the chaplain was one morning despatched on an errand which caused Shanno's heart to beat with strong excitement, his mission being to invite Jack the boatman to pay a long-promised visit to his foster-child, and to bring the old man safely to the farm under his own escort, there to learn from Lady Bryn Afon's lips the story of her relationship to his humble family, which had for so many long years sorely puzzled him. The long journey to the riverside cottage beneath the brow of the famed old castle was pleasurable enough to the young chaplain, not only for the beauty of the scenery through which he passed, but because it was his first visit to the early home of her he loved, and no less dear to him than to herself on that account. And with scarcely less eagerness than Primrose herself did he look forward to the meeting with her beloved foster-father, a man whose name he had heard often enough during his visits to Caer Caradoc and the villages along the Gwynnon Vale, as one worthy of all respect and esteem, but whom he had never yet himself chanced to see. With great impatience did Primrose await their return together, delayed awhile by their passing a night on their way to the mountains at the house of good Master Rhys Prichard of Castell Leon, with whom honest Jack was pleased enough to renew those old disputations so often held at his own cottage by the river between himself, Master Rhys Prichard, and his cousin, Master Rhys of Cwmfelin, upon the relative merits of the Welsh and English tongues. But at length the miles of difficult mountain travelling were safely accomplished, and on the third evening after the chaplain's departure he led the boatman, trembling with joy and excitement, to the arms of his foster-child, who awaited him alone below, while her mother in her chamber above silently sought strength for the strange revelation she was about to make. Presently the boatman was summoned to her presence, and Primrose was left alone.