Mr and Mrs Jonathan offered to remain at the farm, but as they rather irritated Mr Prothero by their evident inclination to take up the defence of the offenders, Owen told his aunt that she had better write to Lady Payne Perry about Netta, as there was always a chance of great people hearing the news.  Owen was very well aware that his aunt could not possibly write to her aristocratic cousin with the pens, ink, and paper in general use at the farm, and that she would be obliged to go to her davenport at the vicarage, where he already saw her, in imagination, with the finest satin letter paper before her, mending her pen into the most delicate of points.

Accordingly they took their leave, with a promise to return on Monday, and were soon succeeded by Miss Gwynne, who, having heard of the elopement, came to see Mrs Prothero.

‘If you could prevail on the mistress to go to bed, ma’am,’ said Gladys when she opened the door to her, ’I would be for ever thankful to you; she is much too ill to be about, and she has done nothing but mope and fret all day.’

Miss Gwynne went straight into the dairy, where Mrs Prothero was making butter.

’So Netta has taken the law into her own hands, Mrs Prothero.  So much the better; I shouldn’t grieve about it if I were you.  It is a grand thing for her.’

’Not to disobey us and run away, Miss Gwynne? she would be better doing her father’s bidding than marrying a lord, much less Howel.’

’But you are not going to make yourself ill and miserable about it.  Since it is done, you may as well make the best of it; but you must go to bed and keep quiet, to-day at least.  You are not fit to see all the people who are already on their way to condole or congratulate.  You will have half the parish here before night; I passed old Nancy, Cwmriddle, hobbling down the lane, and she will be here shortly.’

‘Oh, I couldn’t see them, Miss Gwynne.’

‘Then you must go to bed to avoid it.  Do be advised, you look so ill.’

’When Miss Gwynne so far forgot herself as to be persuasive instead of commanding, she was irresistible.  She put her hand so gently on Mrs Prothero’s shoulder, and looked so kindly into her tearful eyes, that the poor woman began to cry afresh.  The sound of a stick knocking at the back door completed the victory, and Mrs Prothero went sobbing upstairs, whilst Gladys opened the door to admit Nancy, Cwmriddle, and another gossip who had overtaken her.  Mr Prothero came into the yard at the same time.

‘Well, sir, to be sure; only to think of Miss Netta,’ began the old woman in Welsh.

’If you’re come here to talk about her, I’ll thank you to go away again, and tell everybody you meet that they may have their nine days’ wonder about us anywhere but here,’ roared Mr Prothero into Nancy’s ear, who was very deaf.

The old crones, knowing Mr. Prothero well, turned away quicker than they came, and soon began to do his bidding, perceiving that he was in an ‘awful way.’