‘Nell! Nell!’ she cried. ‘Oh, Nell, we were just talking of you. What joy it is to welcome you home.’
She seized her two hands and dragged her along till she stood in the midst of the astonished group.
‘Mother, can’t you see? It is our Nell. She has got her holiday at last, and has come to spend it with us.’
‘Yes, at last!’ exclaimed Nell, as she fell into her mother’s opened arms. ‘Mother, I’ve come home, and I never mean to leave you again.’
At first, in their delight and surprise at her unexpected appearance, they could do nothing but kiss her and gaze at her; but when their excitement had somewhat subsided, all their anxiety was to hear why Nell had not given them warning of her return, and when she was going back to her situation again.
‘Going back,’ she echoed, with a shrill laugh; ‘I’m never going back at all, mother. I’m going to live with you now, and help you as Hetty used to do. I shall never go back unless you tell me you don’t want me.’
Her mother’s only answer was to cry over her, and say how much she had longed for her return, but Hetty was gazing at her sister with amazement. What had happened to her since they had parted in London? Nell was as pale as death; she almost looked thinner than when she had seen her last; her eyes were abnormally large, and there were dark lines under them. Above all, there was a harsh shrillness in her voice which she had not noticed before.
‘My darling lass,’ said Mrs Llewellyn, ‘if you wait till your father and I bid you go, you’ll stay here for ever. But have you been ailing, Nell? Hetty, here, said you were looking so well. But you don’t look so to me. London air can’t agree with you to leave your cheeks so white and your lips so pale. Are you sure you are quite well, my lass? If not, your mother will nurse you till you are. She hasn’t lost much of her good looks, has she, Hugh?’
‘Who’s that?’ said Nell, turning round. ‘What, my old sweetheart? How are you, Hugh? How are you Mrs Owen? I didn’t know mother had a tea-party, you see, or I would have come to-morrow instead of to-day.’
Then she suddenly burst into a wild fit of laughter.