late to-night.
Else why did she send me out for another faggot?" he asked, in his
simple, puzzled way. "But oh, Miss Hetty, she will be glad you've
come back, and now we can all be happy again!"

She waved a hand feebly. "Fetch Molly to me."

By the pallor of her brow in the moonlight he made sure she was near
to fainting: and, indeed she was not far from it. He ran and burst
in at the kitchen-door impetuously; but meeting the eyes of the
family, surprised--as well they might be--by the violence of his
entry and his scared face, he became suddenly and absurdly
diplomatic, crossed to Molly and whispered, as Mrs. Wesley turned her
eyes from the fire.

"But where is the faggot?" she demanded.

"I--I forgot it," stammered Johnny and was for returning to fetch it.
Molly rose.

"Hetty is outside," she announced.

For a second or two there was silence. Mrs. Wesley turned to her
crippled daughter. "You had best bring her in. The rest of you, go
to bed."

They obeyed at once and in silence. Johnny, too, stole off to his
mattress in the glass-doored cupboard under the stairs.

When Molly returned, leading in her sister, Mrs. Wesley was seated by
the fire alone. Mother and daughter looked into each other's eyes.
In silence Hetty stepped forward and dropped into the chair a minute
ago vacated by Kezzy. But for the ticking of the tall clock there
was no sound in the kitchen.

Mrs. Wesley read Hetty's eyes; read the truth in them, and something
else which tied her tongue. She made no offer to rise and kiss her.

"You are hungry?" she asked after a while, and Molly pushed forward a
plate of biscuits. Hetty ate ravenously for a minute (for
twenty-four hours not a morsel of food had passed her lips and she
had walked close on thirty miles) and then pushed away the plate in
disgust. Her eyes still sought her mother's; they neither pleaded
nor reproached.

Yet Mrs. Wesley spoke, when next she spoke, as if choosing to answer
a plea. "Your father does not know of your return. You may sleep
with Molly to-night." She bent over the hearth and raked its embers
together. Molly laid a hand lightly on Hetty's shoulder, then
slipped it under the crook of her arm, and lifted and led her from
the kitchen.

Hetty went unresisting. When they reached the bedroom she halted and
stared around as one who had lost her bearings. She winced once and
shook as Molly's gentle fingers began to unfasten her bodice, but
afterwar