Why did you stay so long?
Why were you not there to save our _pauvre pere_?
Oh, I am glad to have you back.

We shall be happy again." And she put up her face to be kissed, which I did with beating heart; for she had never looked to me so sweet, nor had her voice sounded so like music to my ears.
"They said you had deserted us," said she, "but I knew it was a bad lie.
Peter, _mechant_, what think you now, he has come back, our Humphrey?
Go and tell _maman_, and Prosper and the little ones." You would have been sorry for Peter at that! His face was glum enough when I kissed my little mistress; but it looked fairly ugly when she sent him on this errand.

What cared I?
There were some yet who thought not ill of Humphrey Dexter.
Mistress Walgrave, my dear mistress, received me sadly yet kindly.
Whether she had believed the false tales of my fellow 'prentice or not, I know not.

But she had nothing but welcome for me when she heard my story.

And when it was done she told me how she wished I had been home when all the trouble happened.
"'Tis as well this journey of yours failed," said she.