at he had some pleasure in having his daughter
once more beneath his roof, especially as he had implored his wife not
to deprive him of that happiness during the small remainder of his days.
But he sat there with no look of joy upon his face. That she should be
stern, sullen, and black-browed was to be expected. She had been
compelled to entertain their guest; and was not at all the woman to bear
such compulsion meekly.

The hour at last wore itself away, and the carriage which was to take
Caldigate back to Folking was again at the door. It was a Tuesday. 'You
will send for me on Thursday,' she said to him in a whisper.

'Certainly.'

'Early? After breakfast, you know. I suppose you will not come
yourself.'

'Not here, I think. I have done all the good that I can do, and it is
pleasant to no one. But you shall pick me up in the town. I shall go in
and see your brother Robert.' Then he went, and Hester was left with her
parents.

As she turned back from the hall-door she found her mother standing at
the foot of the stairs, waiting for her. 'Shall I come with you, mamma?'
she said. Holding each other's arms they went up, and so passed into
Hester's room, where the nurse was sitting with the boy. 'Let her go
into my room,' said the elder lady. So the nurse took the baby away, and
they were alone together. 'Oh, Hester, Hester, my child!' said the
mother, flinging her arms wildly round her daughter.

The whole tenor of her face was changed at that moment. Even to Hester
she had been stern, forbidding, and sullen. There had not been a
gracious movement about her lips or eyes since the visitors had come. A
stranger, could a stranger have seen it all, would have said that the
mother did not love her child, that there was no touch of tenderness
about the woman's heart. But now, when she was alone, with the one thing
on earth that was dear to her, she melted at once. In a moment Hester
found herself seated on the sofa, with her mother kneeling before her,
sobbing, and burying her face in the loved one's lap. 'You love me,
Hester,--still.'

'Love you, mamma! You know I love you.'

'Not as it used to be. I am nothing to you now. I can do nothing for you
now. You turn away from me, because--because--because--'

'I have never turned away from you, mamma.'

'Because I could not bear that you should be taken away from me and
given to him.'

'He is good, mamma. If you would only believe that he is good!'

'He is not good