JEREMY. Being as grey as th’ old badger don’t keep a female back from vanity. LIZ. O dear, Master Jeremy, what a turn you did give me, to be sure. JANE. We can’t find no one in this house to attend upon we. JEREMY. I count as you can not. Bain’t no one here. LIZ. We rang for the wench a many time. JEREMY. Ah, and you might ring. JANE. We want someone as’ll fasten them niggly hooks to our gowns. JEREMY. Ah, and you may want. LIZ. Our sight bain’t clear enough to do one for t’other, the eyelets be made so small. JEREMY. Count as you’ll have to go unfastened then. JANE. O now you be a laughing at us. Call the wench down, or we shall never be ready in time. JEREMY. Man and maid be both gone off. Same as t’others, us’ll have to do without service. LIZ. Gone off! JANE. Runned clean away? JEREMY. That’s about it. JANE. Well now, sister, us’ll have to ask the little Miss to help we. JEREMY. I’ve harnessed the mare a many time. Don’t see why I shouldn’t get the both of you fixed into the shafts like. LIZ and JANE. [_Fanning themselves coyly_.] O Master Jeremy— JEREMY. Come now. Let’s have a try. I count as no one have a steadier hand nor me this side of the river, nor a finer eye for seeing as everything be in its place. I’ll settle the both of you afore I gets out the horse and trap. Turn round. [_The sisters turn awkwardly_, _and with very self-conscious airs begin to flutter their fans_. JEREMY _quickly hooks each gown in succession_. _As he finishes the fastening of_ JANE’S _dress_ ROSE, _followed by_ KITTY, _comes into the room_. _She is wearing her bridal gown and veil_. ROSE. [_Pausing_.] What’s this, Jeremy? JEREMY. The servants be runned away same as t’others—that’s all, mistress. ROSE. Run away? JEREMY. So I do reckon. Bain’t anywhere about the place. ROSE. [_Flinging herself down on a chair by the table_, _in front of the bunch of forget-me-nots_.] Let them be found. Let them be brought back at once. KITTY. For my part I’m glad they’ve gone off. The girl was a wild, bad thing. I saw how she went on with Robert. ROSE. [_Brokenly to_ JEREMY.] You found them. Bring them back, Jerry. KITTY. No—wait till you and Robert are made man and wife, Rose. Then ’twon’t matter quite so much. ROSE. I’ll never wed me to Robert, I’ll only wed me to him who gathered these blue flowers here. KITTY. Good heavens, Rose, ’twas the man William. [KITTY _looks in consternation from_ ROSE _to the cousins and then to_ JEREMY, _who remains impassive and uninterested_, _sucking a straw_. ROSE _clasps her hands round the forget-me-nots and sits gazing at them_, _desolately unhappy_. ROBERT _enters_. _He is very grandly dressed for the wedding_, _but as he comes into the room he sees_ ISABEL’S _cotton bonnet on the floor_. _He stoops_, _picks it up and laying it reverently on the table_, _sinks into a chair opposite_ ROSE _and raising one of its ribbons_, _kisses this with passion_.