The wind, sweeping round by the gate, made her fold herself more closely in the blue cloak. She thought of Gray in her new happiness and shivered a little as if conscious of a creeping chill. Her work was pretty near done. One by one each little bird would spread its young wings and fly away until, in the end, only the empty nest would remain to her. She would have been glad if Tom, sleeping deeply, had been at hand with his comfortable "Well, mother, tired be ’ee? Take and come on in and talk to me a bit." The moonlight revealed the empty stretch of road, the sharp shadows of the hedges and, at the top, the rounded tower of the mill. A patch of moving blackness could presently be descried. Through the windy stir came the light patter of running feet and, in a minute, Richbell, breathless and gay, almost fell into her mother’s arms. "Now, Wild-e-go, where you gwine in such a hurry?" protested Mrs. Tom. "Oh, mammy, I dunno. I’m so delighted I dunno what to do wi’ meself." "Av ’ee enjoyed yourself this evening then?" "Ah, I should think I had!" With two lads glowering at each other across the harmonium, Richbell had been entirely happy. "You’m a proper flirt." "I can’t help it. I don’t ask the boys to come." The mother passed a rough hand over the girl’s curly mop. She was proud of Richbell’s ’’ead of ’air,’ bronze hair with warm lights. "Did I hear you sayin’ you was goin’ to Percy ’Olman’s place to tea?" "Well, I’d nothing to do to keep me home." "I’d sooner it was Will Brenton." "Well, mammy, if I don’t like him, what’s the good for you to talk?" Mrs. Rosevear sighed, for Will was heir to a good farm while Percy was a sailor, dependent for his prospects on an uncle who had other nephews. "My dear, you can’t live with the man alone, you must ’av something to live on." "I don’t care. If I don’t have grand things I must have others." "As you make your bed, my dear, so you must lie. I ’ad to fight my way in the world and so must you, that’s all; but—Will Brenton’s a steady decent chap." "Well, so he is, but I don’t want to get married yet. Half the young girls that’s married now, don’t see no young life but I mean to." Mrs. Tom was not to be turned from the point she was making. "An’ Percy’s always after the maidens." Richbell laughed. She knew her power over the lads. Mrs. Tom understood the laugh. "’E bain’t always ’ome," she said, answering its young complacency. "Percy’s a sailor and they say sailors ’av a wife in every port." But Richbell’s self-confidence was not to be shaken. "Oh, it’s only a bit of chaff. Why, mammy, I like a bit of chaff myself." "Yes, but you’ll find, my dear, that what’s good for the goose bain’t always good for the gander. Maidens see a thing one way and wives another."