Clara, followed by Joan, comes through the wood.  Clara is dressed in a long, rich cloak and wears a bonnet that is brightly trimmed with feathers and ribbons.  Joan wears a cotton bonnet and small shawl.  She carries her mistress’s silken bag over her arm.

Clara. [Pointing to the fallen tree.] There is the very resting place for us.  We will sit down under the trees for a while. [She seats herself.

Joan. [Dusting the tree with her handkerchief before she sits on it.] Have we much further to go, mistress?

Clara.  Only a mile or two, so far as I can remember.

Joan.  ’Tis rough work for the feet, down in these parts, mistress.

Clara.  If London roads were paved with diamonds I’d sooner have my feet treading this rugged way that leads to home.

Joan.  What sort of a place shall we find it when we gets there, mistress.

Clara.  I was but seven when I left them all, Joan.  And that is fourteen years ago to-day.

Joan.  So many years may bring about some powerful big changes, mistress.

Clara.  But I dream that I shall find all just as it was when I went away.  Only that Gran’ma won’t be there.

[There is a short silence during which Clara seems lost in thought.  Joan flicks the dust off her shoes with a branch of leaves.

Joan.  ’Tis the coaches I do miss down in these parts.

Clara.  I would not have driven one step of the way this morning, Joan.  In my fancy I have been walking up from the village and through the wood and over the meadows since many a day.  I have not forgotten one turn of the path.

Joan.  The road has not changed then, mistress?

Clara.  No.  But it does not seem quite so broad or so fine as I remembered it to be.  That is all.

Joan.  And very likely the house won’t seem so fine neither, mistress, after the grand rooms which you have been used to.

Joan.  What company shall we see there, mistress?

Clara.  Well, there’s Thomas, he is my brother, and Emily his wife. 
Then the two children.

Clara. [After a short silence, and as though to herself.] And there was George.

Joan.  Yes, mistress

Clara.  Georgie seemed so big and tall to me in those days.  I wonder how old he really was, when I was seven.

Joan.  Would that be a younger brother of yours, like, mistress

Clara.  No, George minded the horses and looked after the cows and poultry.  Sometimes he would drive me into market with him on a Saturday.  And in the evenings I would follow him down to the pool to see the cattle watered.

Joan.  I’m mortal afeared of cows, mistress.  I could never abide the sight nor the sound of those animals.