village of
Gablethorpe! It was only three months since he had left the place,
but he felt as though full as many years had passed over his head.

He was not very finely dressed; but there was a style about his
London-made riding suit which his country clothes had lacked, and
the peruke upon his head gave him the air of a fine gentleman. He
noted with amusement that some of the rustics who gaped at him as
he passed did not recognize him, although he knew them well. If he
had been riding Wildfire they would have known the horse; but now
both steed and rider seemed strange to them.

Then as he rode at a foot pace through the village, smiling at
sight of the familiar places and faces (his friend had turned back
when they had passed the limits of the forest, and had ridden home
with his servant, not to be belated), one of the women at the
cottage doors smote her hands together and cried:

"Bless us all! if it bean't Master Tom hisself!"

"Golly! and so it be!" cried her husband, who was just coming in
from the fields; and the next minute Tom was surrounded by a
gaping, admiring crowd, all eager to give him welcome, and wonder
at the fine figure he cut amongst them.

The restiveness of the mare shortened the greetings of the rustics;
for Nell Gwynne was not accustomed to being so surrounded, and
showed a disposition to lay about her with her heels, or to rear
and strike out with her forefeet. These manoeuvres soon scattered
the crowd, and Tom rode on, laughing and waving his hand; whilst
the fleet-footed of the village urchins started in a beeline across
the meadows for Gablehurst, knowing that the lady there would
certainly bestow a silver groat upon him who first brought the news
that Master Tom was at hand!

So when Tom rode up the avenue towards the fine old gabled house,
which had never looked so pleasant to him as in the evening glow of
this January afternoon, mother and sister were out upon the steps
waiting for him; and the servants were assembling from within and
without to give him a hearty cheer, and receive his kindly smile
and greeting in reply.

His mother folded him in her arms, with the tears running down her
cheeks. She had only heard once from him all these months; for the
letter he had sent at Christmas time had never found its way
through the snow drifts of the forest. Tom kissed mother and sister
with real feeling, and then turned aside to give minute
instructions and warnings with regard to th