He noted with amusement that some of the rustics who gaped at him as he passed did not recognize him, although he knew them well.

If he had been riding Wildfire they would have known the horse; but now both steed and rider seemed strange to them.
Then as he rode at a foot pace through the village, smiling at sight of the familiar places and faces (his friend had turned back when they had passed the limits of the forest, and had ridden home with his servant, not to be belated), one of the women at the cottage doors smote her hands together and cried: "Bless us all! if it bean't Master Tom hisself!" "Golly! and so it be!" cried her husband, who was just coming in from the fields; and the next minute Tom was surrounded by a gaping, admiring crowd, all eager to give him welcome, and wonder at the fine figure he cut amongst them.
The restiveness of the mare shortened the greetings of the rustics; for Nell Gwynne was not accustomed to being so surrounded, and showed a disposition to lay about her with her heels, or to rear and strike out with her forefeet.

These manoeuvres soon scattered the crowd, and Tom rode on, laughing and waving his hand; whilst the fleet-footed of the village urchins started in a beeline across the meadows for Gablehurst, knowing that the lady there would certainly bestow a silver groat upon him who first brought the news that Master Tom was at hand! So when Tom rode up the avenue towards the fine old gabled house, which had never looked so pleasant to him as in the evening glow of this January afternoon, mother and sister were out upon the steps waiting for him; and the servants were assembling from within and without to give him a hearty cheer, and receive his kindly smile and greeting in reply.
His mother folded him in her arms, with the tears running down her cheeks.

She had only heard once from him all these months; for the letter he had sent at Christmas time had never found its way through the snow drifts of the forest.

Tom kissed mother and sister with real feeling, and then turned aside to give minute instructions and warnings with regard to the mare, who was put into the care of the old servant who had most experience in the matter of horse flesh, and felt no uneasiness at the vagaries and tantrums of her ladyship.
Then Tom turned to enter the familiar hall, his hand upon his mother's shoulder, Rachel clinging to his other arm.
"O Tom!" she cried, "have you come back to us for good?
Have you had enough of gay London town ?" There was already a traveller's meal set out in the warm south parlour, and the servants were hurrying to and fro with eager zeal and excitement.