And then there was a reason for the return.  It would be well that the coming heir to the Folking estate should be born at Folking.  Whether an heir, or only an insignificant girl, it would be well that the child should be born amidst the comforts of home; and so they came back.  When they reached the station at Cambridge the squire was there to receive them, as were also Robert Bolton and his wife.  ’I am already in my new house,’ said the old man,—­’but I mean to go out with you for to-day and to-morrow, and just stay till you are comfortably fixed.’

‘I never see her myself,’ said Robert, in answer to a whispered inquiry from his sister.  ’Or it would be more correct to say she will never see me.  But I hear from the others that she speaks of you constantly.’

’She has written to me of course.  But she never mentions John.  In writing back I have always sent his love, and have endeavoured to show that I would not recognise any quarrel.’

‘If I were you,’ said Robert, ’I would not take him with me when I went.’  Then the three Caldigates were taken off to Folking.

A week passed by and then arrived the day on which it had been arranged that Hester was to go to Chesterton and see her mother.  There had been numerous letters, and at last the matter was settled between Caldigate and old Mr. Bolton at the bank.  ’I think you had better let her come alone,’ the old man had said when Caldigate asked whether he might be allowed to accompany his wife.  ’Mrs. Bolton has not been well since her daughter’s marriage and has felt the desolation of her position very much.  She is weak and nervous, and I think you had better let Hester come alone.’  Had Caldigate known his mother-in-law better he would not have suggested a visit from himself.  No one who did know her would have looked forward to see her old hatred eradicated by an absence of nine months.  Hester therefore went into Cambridge alone, and was taken up to the house by her father.  As she entered the iron gates she felt almost as though she were going into the presence of one who was an enemy to herself.  And yet when she saw her mother, she rushed at once into the poor woman’s arms.  ’Oh, mamma, dear mamma, dearest mamma!  My own, own, own mamma!’

Mrs. Bolton was sitting by the open window of a small breakfast parlour which looked into the garden, and had before her on her little table her knitting and a volume of sermons.  ‘So you have come back, Hester,’ she said after a short pause.  She had risen at first to receive her daughter, and had returned her child’s caresses, but had then reseated herself quickly, as though anxious not to evince any strong feeling on the occasion.

‘Yes, mamma, I have come back.  We have been so happy!’

‘I am glad you have been happy.  Such joys are short-lived; but, still—­’

‘He has been so good to me, mamma!’

Good!  What was the meaning of the word good?  She doubted the goodness of such goodness as his.  Do not they who are tempted by the pleasures of the world always praise the good-nature and kindness of them by whom they are tempted?  There are meanings to the word good which are so opposed one to another!  ’A husband is, I suppose, generally kind to his wife, at any rate for a little time,’ she said.