"Ah!" cried Mrs Glynn, pressing Nelly's hand in both hers, "now I begin to see! And he came back to have it out! Oh, how glad I am I came! Now I can see all the excuses for him. It was an error of judgment, but it was very natural. My dear, my dear; and then?" "There was no more," Nelly said, raising her head. With what relief she heard that--excuses for him! even for _him_. "I was very much frightened," she added, with new confidence, "for I had forgotten the window was open, and I thought--I don't know what I thought. I ran up-stairs at once to bid nurse prepare a room for him--and I did not see him again." "God bless you, my dear," cried the Rector's wife, taking Nelly into her arms and giving her a kiss. "That was the very best thing you could have done; unless you had sent him over to us to the Rectory, but of course you did not think of that. Oh, how glad I am I came! Oh, how pleased my husband will be! It was what I would have wished you to have done if you had been my own child. But what a situation for you! what a moment, my poor dear! It was wrong--it was very wrong--of him; he ought to have known better: but yet, a young man! and interrupted at the very moment when----He was wrong, but there were excuses for him, my dear." Mrs Glynn stayed for some time, full of sympathy and consolation. "He has behaved very foolishly, my love. He ought not to have come, and, being here, he ought not to have gone away so soon. He ought to have left openly, like any other visitor, and settled everything before he went. But a young man in the height of passion----" It was a comfort to Nelly that good Mrs Glynn said "passion," too. "Of course, he will come back in the afternoon, and you will have your explanation," she added. "And then you will come to the Rectory, and bring him to see us; you will--you will, promise me you will? And, oh, God bless you, and make it a happy change for you, my dear!" CHAPTER VIII.