"'Twas a beautiful sermon, father, I have never heard a better, not
even from Jones Bryn y groes."

"Yes, I should think 'twas a good sermon, though I couldn't understand
the English well; only the text 'twas coming in very often 'Lord, try
me and see if there be any wicked way in me,'" and he repeated several
times as he drove home "'any wicked way in me.' Yes, yes, 'tis all
right!"

When they reached home without Will, Gwilym Morris seemed to understand
at once what had happened, and he helped the old man out of the car
with a pat on his back and a cheery greeting.

"Well, there now! didn't I tell you how it would be? Will had so many
invitations he could not come back with you. There was Captain Lewis
Bryneiron said, 'You must come and dine with me!' and Colonel Vaughan
Nantmyny said, 'He must come with me!' and be bound Sir John Hughes
wanted him to go to Plasdu; so, poor fellow, he _had_ to go, and we've
got to eat our splendid dinner ourselves! Come along; such a goose you
never saw!"

Ebben Owens said nothing, as he walked into the house, stooping more
than usual, and looking ten years older.

There was dire disappointment in the kitchen, too, when the dinner came
out scarcely tasted.

It is not to be supposed that by such observant eyes as Gwenda's, the
Garthowen car, with the waiting Ann and the old man hovering about, had
escaped unnoticed. Nay! To her quick perception the whole event
revealed itself in a flash of intuition. They were waiting there for
Will. He had disappointed and wounded his old father, but at the same
moment she saw that the slight had been unintentional; for as the
carriage dashed by the waiting car, she saw in Will's face a look of
surprise and distress, a hurried search in his pocket, and an unwelcome
discovery of a letter addressed and stamped--but, alas! unposted. The
pathetic incident troubled her not a little. An English girl would
probably have spoken out at once with the splendid honesty
characteristic of her nation, but Gwenda, being a thorough Welshwoman,
acted differently. With what detractors of the Celtic character would
probably call "craftiness," but what we prefer to call "tact and
tenderness," she determined not to ruffle the existing happy state of
affairs by risking a misunderstanding with her lover, but would rather
wait until, as a wife, she could bring the whole influence of her own
honest nature to bear upon this weak trait in his character.

A