“What did you do?”

“I took in Scamp in the night when he barked at the window, and I wanted to keep him, though Mr. Enderby would not have him about the place; and I fought to get him.  And I told Mrs. Enderby that I ought to have him.  And then I took him out of the stable-yard and ran away with him.”

“I’m afraid that was badness in the end,” said Mrs. Kane.  “It began with goodness, but it ran to badness.  Deary me, it’s often the same with myself.  I think I’m so right that I can’t go wrong.  But all comes straight again when we’re sorry for a fault.”

“But I can’t be sorry for keeping Scamp when he loves me so.  Nobody else loves me,” cried Hetty, with a burst of tears.

Mrs. Kane was by her side in a minute.  “Not love you! don’t they, my dear?  Well, there’s somebody that loves you more than Scamp, that I know.  Come, now, dry your eyes and eat a bit.  There’s a nicer cup of tea than they’d give you at the Hall; for the little brown pot on the hearth makes better tea than ever comes out of silver.  I was a maid in a big house once myself, and I know the difference.”

In answer to this Hetty sat up as well as the pain of her foot would allow, and flung her arms round Mrs. Kane’s neck.

“Oh, keep me here with you!” she cried.  “I am tired of being grand.  I will stay with you and learn to be a useful girl, if only you will love me.”

Mrs. Kane heaved a long sigh as Hetty’s arms fastened round her neck.  Now she felt rewarded for all the love and care she had poured out on the child during the three years she had had her for her own.  A little bit of hard ice that had always been lying at the bottom of her heart ever since Hetty had left her, now melted away, and she said, half laughing and half crying: 

“Come now, deary, don’t be talking nonsense.  Nice and fit you’d be to bear with a cottage life after all you’ve been seeing.  Don’t you think the gentlefolks would give you up so easily as that.  But whenever you want a word of love and a heart to rest your bit of a head upon like this, mind you remember where they’re always waiting for you, Hetty.”

Hetty sobbed and clung to her more closely, and it was some time before she could be induced to eat and drink.  When she did so the homely meal set before her seemed to her the most delicious she had ever tasted.

“Oh I am so glad I have found my way back to you,” she said; “I never should have done it if I hadn’t got into such trouble.  Oh, you don’t know how proud and bad I have been!  I know I’ve been bad, now that you are so good to me.”

After about an hour John Kane came back.  He had been obliged to wait to put up his horses and see to their wants for the night before he could come home.  The message he brought from the Hall was that Hetty must stay where she was till her foot was better, as moving about was so bad for a sprain.  Mrs. Enderby would see Mrs. Kane about her to-morrow.