st him because his love for his son did prove
stronger than his honesty, why! it's home to Garthowen I'll go, to
cheer him and to love him, and to show the world that I for one will
stick to him, weak or strong, upright or sinful!"

"Gethin bach! thou know'st what real love is! Love that no folly or
weakness, or even sin, in the dear one can alter. That is what I have
come to fetch; a son to support and comfort my old friend in his latter
days. Gwilym Morris is good and kind to him, and Ann--thou know'st
they are married these four years?"

"Yes, Jim Brown told me, and I was very glad."

"But 'tis his own son he is longing for. ''Tis my boy Gethin I want to
see,' he says; 'he was so kind to me.'"

"Did he say that?"

"That did he."

"Diwss anwl! I never knew he cared a button for me."

He was longing to ask for Morva.

"Thee hasn't asked for Morva yet," said Sara.

"Is she well?"

"Oh! well--quite well, and as happy as a bird since Will is married."

"Since Will is married! How can that be if he has deserted her and
married another woman? I never thought Will would do that! And who
has he married?

"A lady, Gethin! Miss Gwenda Vaughan of Nantmyny--didst ever hear such
a thing?--and as sweet a girl as ever lived!"

"Well, well, and so Will has married a lady? Well, that's his choice,
mine would never lie that way; a simple country lass for me, or else
none at all, and most likely 'twill be that. Well, we may say good-bye
to Will. I suppose we sha'n't see much more of him."

"Perhaps not."

"But 'tis Morva I'm thinking of, Sara; how does she bear it? She is
hiding her grief from you--she loved him, I know she loved him! and for
him to turn from her and give his love to another must have been a
cruel grief to her."

"Gethin," said the old woman, "she never loved him. She promised to
marry him when she was a child, before she knew what love meant, but
since she has grown up her heart has been refusing to keep the promise
which bound her to Will. She has tried over and over again to get her
freedom; like those poor birds we see caught in the net sometimes, she
has fluttered and fluttered, but all in vain; and when the letter came
from Will to Garthowen telling his father of the wonderful marriage
that was coming so near, 'twas as if someone had broken the net and let
the bird go free. And there's Morva now, happy and bright like she was
before she found out that her promise to Will was ga