"Father?"
He put out a hand as he dropped into his seat, and stared along the empty table.
"I am dismissed."
Mrs. Benny faced about, felt for a chair, and sat down trembling. Nuncey took her father's hand.
"Tell us all about it," she commanded; and he told them.
His wife cast her apron over her head.
"But he'll take you back," she moaned. "If you go to 'en and ask 'en properly, he'll surely take you back!"
"Don't be foolish, mother." Nuncey laid a hand on her father's shoulder, and he looked up at her with brimming eyes. "'Tis Rosewarne that shall send to us before we go to him!"
She patted the tired shoulders, now bent again over the table.
"But what a brave little father it is, after all!"