"Now then! no more nonsense, girls! Ye are hired to us and ye will go," Plunkett declared, lifting the women into the wagon, while Lionel got up beside them, and then amid the shouts of the crowd and the laughter of the other girls, and the noise of the hurdy-gurdies and the dancing and the calls of the people, Lady Harriet, Nancy, and Lionel were driven off to the farm by Plunkett. ACT II "Now, damsels, get to bed," Plunkett said to Martha and Nancy as he opened the door of the farmhouse upon their arrival. "Get to bed, because ye must get up at dawn." The two giddy young women looked about them. There were doors at the right and left of the big room which they first entered, and they doubtless led to bedrooms. On the table a lamp was burning and there were a couple of spinning wheels to be seen. As they came in they noticed a bell hung on a pole just outside the door. Not a bit like the palace of Queen Anne! and altogether the lark didn't appear to have the advantages it first had. "O heaven! What shall we do?" Martha said to Nancy. "We must get out of this soon, in some way." "Well, the main thing is to get to bed now," Nancy declared, and so the girls turned to say good-night to the two farmers. "Good-night? Not so. There are your duties to be done first." "Our duties?" Martha exclaimed, looking blank. "Oh, don't disturb them to-night," Lionel interrupted, speaking to his brother. Lionel was more and more impressed with both of them, especially with the beauty of Martha. "They are very tired. Don't disturb them to-night." "But you will spoil them to begin with," Plunkett insisted. "And by the way, what are your names?" he asked. "Mine is Martha," Lady Harriet answered dolefully. "Mine is--Julia," Nancy said impatiently. "Ho, ho! Too grand to please me!--but, Julia, my dame of fashion, pray, put my cloak away," Plunkett returned, handing it to her. "Upon my life! What impertinence!" she cried, throwing the cloak upon the floor. "Put away your own cloak." "What--what?" Plunkett shouted, enraged, and starting up. "Now, pray be lenient with them, brother. They are quite strange to our ways, perhaps--and then they are very tired, you know. Probably overworked by their last master. Leave matters to me. I'll put them quite at their ease;" whereupon Lionel took his hat and held it out to Martha. "Martha--take it, if you please," Martha looked at him haughtily, and turned her back on him. Poor Lionel was distracted and abashed. "Well, really, I don't--I don't know just what to do myself," he declared, as his brother snorted with satisfaction at Lionel's discomfiture. "Well," said Lionel, hesitating a moment; then he took his hat and hung it up himself; then Plunkett picked up _his_ cloak and waited upon _him_self. "A pretty kettle-of-fish, I should say," he muttered. "Well, then, to your spinning!" "To our spinning?" they cried in unison.