It's absurd of me, I daresay." The morning the boxes arrived at The Kennel Farm, Emily came too.

She was in the big carriage, and carried with her some special final purchases she wanted to bring herself.

She came because she could not have kept away.

She wanted to see the things again, to be with Hester when she unpacked them, to help her, to look them all over, to touch them and hold them in her hands.
She found Hester in the large, low-ceilinged room in which she slept.
The big four-post bed was already snowed over with a heaped-up drift of whiteness, and open boxes were scattered about.

There was an odd expression in the girl's eyes, and she had a red spot on either cheek.
"I did not expect anything like this," she said.