stacks there was blazing an enormous
bonfire. All the rotten timber about the place and two or three
tar-barrels had been got together, and there were collected all the
inhabitants of the two parishes. The figures of the boys and girls and
of the slow rustics with their wives could be seen moving about
indistinctly across the water by the fluttering flame of the bonfire.
And their own figures, too, were observed in the moonlight, and John
Caldigate was welcomed back to his home by a loud cheer from all his
neighbours.

'I did not see much of it myself,' Mr. Holt said afterwards, 'because me
and my missus was busy among the stacks all the time, looking after the
sparks. The bonfire might a' been too big, you know.'

Chapter LXIII

How Mrs. Bolton Was Quite Conquered

Nearly a week passed over their heads at Puritan Grange before anything
further was either done or said, or even written, as to the return of
John Caldigate to his own home and to his own wife. In the meantime,
both Mrs. Robert and Mrs. Daniel had gone out to Folking and made visits
of ceremony,--visits which were intended to signify their acknowledgment
that Mrs. John Caldigate was Mrs. John Caldigate. With Mrs. Daniel the
matter was quite ceremonious and short. Mrs. Robert suggested something
as to a visit into Cambridge, saying that her husband would be delighted
if Hester and Mr. Caldigate would come and dine and sleep. Hester
immediately felt that something had been gained, but she declined the
proposed visit for the present. 'We have both of us,' she said, 'gone
through so much, that we are not quite fit to go out anywhere yet.' Mrs.
Robert had hardly expected them to come, but she had observed her
husband's behests. So far there had been a family reconciliation during
the first few days after the prisoner's release; but no sign came from
Mrs. Bolton; and Mr. Bolton, though he had given his orders, was not at
first urgent in requiring obedience to them. Then she received a letter
from Hester.

'DEAREST, DEAREST MAMMA,--Of course you know that my darling husband
has come back to me. All I want now to make me quite happy is to
have you once again as my own, own mother. Will you not send me a
line to say that it shall all be as though these last long dreary
months had never been;--so that I may go to you and show you my baby
once again? And, dear mamma, say one word to me to let me know that
you know that he i