sure of it, she
declared, because that it was impossible that so great injustice should
be done. But the last fortnight had been very long. When those wicked
people had been put in prison she had thought that then surely he would
come. But now he was there, with his arms round her, safe in his own
home, and everything was well. Then she lifted the baby up to be kissed
again and again, and began to dance and spring in her joy. Then,
suddenly, she almost threw the child into his arms, and seated herself,
covered her face with her hands and began to sob with violence. When he
asked her, with much embracing to compose herself, sitting close to her,
kissing her again and again, she shook her head as it lay upon his
shoulder, and then burst out into a fit of laughter. 'What does it
matter,' she said after a while, as he knelt at her knees;--'what does
it matter? My boy's father has come back to him. My boy has got his own
name, and he is an honest true Caldigate; and no one again will tell me
that another woman owns my husband, my own husband, the father of my
boy. It almost killed me, John, when they said that you were not mine.
And yet I knew that they said it falsely. I never doubted for a moment.
I knew that you were my own, and that my boy had a right to his father's
name. But it was hard to hear them say so, John. It was hard to bear
when my mother swore that it was so!'

At last they went down and found the old squire waiting for his
breakfast. 'I should think,' said he, 'that you would be glad to see a
loaf of bread on a clean board again, and to know that you may cut it as
you please. Did they give you enough where you were?'

'I didn't think much about it, sir.'

'But you must think about it now,' said Hester. 'To please me you must
like everything; your tea, and your fresh eggs, and the butter and the
cream. You must let yourself be spoilt for a time just to compensate me
for your absence.'

'You have made yourself smart to receive him at any rate,' said the
squire, who had become thoroughly used to the black gown which she had
worn morning, noon, and evening while her husband was away.

'Why should I not be smart,' she said, 'when my man has come to me? For
whose eyes shall I put on the raiment that is his own but for his? I
was much lower than a widow in the eyes of all men; but now I have got
my husband back again. And my boy shall wear the very best that he has,
so that his father may see him smile at his