n as print that I
was wanted. 'Look sharp, John Kane!' he said; and how he knows my name I
can't tell. There, let me sit you in the cart, and I'll jolt you as
little as may be."

Hetty was thankful to be put in the cart, and it seemed to her a very
strange chance that had brought John Kane a second time in her life to
rescue her. He did not know her at all, and she did not like to tell him
who she was.

"Now, where can I take you to?" he said, as they neared the village.

"I came from Wavertree Hall," said Hetty, hanging her head, "and," she
added with a great throb of her heart, "my name is Hetty Gray."

"Law, you don't say so!" said honest John; "our little Hetty that is
turned into a lady! Well, child, it's not the first time you have got a
ride in John Kane's cart. You cannot remember, but you used to be main
fond of these very horses, watching them getting shod and running among
their feet. However, bygones is bygones, and you won't want to hear
anything of all that. Now, I can't drive you up to the door of the Hall
in this lumbering big vehicle; but if you'll condescend to come to our
cottage for an hour, I'll take a message to say where you are, and Mrs.
Enderby will send for you properly, no doubt."

Hetty's heart was full as she thanked John Kane for his kindness. She
had almost been afraid that he would break out into raptures and want to
hug her as Mrs. Kane had done; but when she found him so cold and
respectful a lump rose in her throat, and something seemed to tell her
that as she had pushed away from her the love of these good honest
people, she deserved to be as lonely and unloved as she was.

Fortunately it was quite dark when the cart passed through the village,
so that no one noticed whom John Kane had got cowering down in his cart
behind the logs of timber. When he stopped at his own door his wife came
out, and he said to her in a low voice:

"Look you here, Anne, if I haven't brought you home little Hetty a
second time out of trouble. Found her on the road I did, with her ankle
sprained. We'll take her in for the present, and I'll go to the Hall and
tell the gentlefolks."

Mrs. Kane had just been making ready her husband's tea, and the fire was
burning brightly in her tidy kitchen, making it look pretty and
homelike. She was greatly astonished at her husband's news, and came to
the cart at once, though with a soreness at heart, remembering her last
meeting with Hetty, and thinking how littl