[INT. MRS HUGHES'S SITTING ROOM - EVENING]

　　MR CARSON

　　I've put out the Rundell candlesticks for dinner tonight.

　　[Mrs Hughes nods absentmindedly, concentrating on her thoughts.]

　　MR CARSON

　　Ah. I'm sorry, I'll come back later.

　　MRS HUGHES

　　No, stay, please. I've got something I'd like to talk to you about, if you've a minute.

　　[Mr Carson enters and closes the door and they sit opposite each other.]

　　MRS HUGHES

　　Before I first came here as head housemaid, I was walking out with a farmer. When I told him I'd taken a job at Downton, he asked me to marry him. I was a farmer's daughter from Argyle, so I knew the life. He was very nice. But then I came here and I—I did well, and I...I didn't want to give it up. So, I told him no, and he married someone else. She died three years ago, and last  month,  he  wrote  asking  to  see  me  again,  and  I  agreed,  because  all  this  time,  I've wondered.

　　MR CARSON

　　Go on.

　　MRS HUGHES

　　I met him the other night. We had dinner at the Grantham Arms and after, he took me to the fair.

　　MR CARSON

　　And he was horrible and fat and red-faced and you couldn't think what you ever saw in him?

　　MRS HUGHES

　　He was still a nice man. He is still a nice man. Well, he was a bit red-faced, and his suit was a little tight, but none of that matters. In the real ways, he hadn't changed.

　　MR CARSON

　　And he proposed again...and you accepted?

　　MRS HUGHES

　　In many ways, I wanted to accept. But I'm not that farm girl anymore. I was flattered, of course, but... I've changed, Mr Carson.

　　MR CARSON

　　Life's altered you, as it's altered me. And what would be the point of living if we didn't let life change us? You won't be leaving, then?

　　[Anna knocks and enters.]

　　ANNA

　　You better come. Mrs Patmore's on the rampage. She wants the key to the store cupboard, and you know how angry she gets she hasn't got one of her own.

　　MRS HUGHES

　　Nor will she have. Not while I'm housekeeper here. Leaving' When would I ever find the time.

　　MRS PATMORE

　　...I had to go cap in hand to Mary. It never stops!

　　[INT. DRAWING ROOM - EVENING]

　　CORA, COUNTESS OF GRANTHAM

　　Whatever is holding Sybil up?

　　LADY MARY

　　She was going on about her new frock.

　　[INT. LADY SYBIL'S BEDROOM - EVENING]

　　[Anna helps Sybil dress.]

　　[INT. DRAWING ROOM - EVENING]

　　ROBERT, EARL OF GRANTHAM

　　We'd better go in without her, or it's not fair on Mrs Patmore.

　　VIOLET, DOWAGER COUNTESS OF GRANTHAM

　　Oh, is her cooking so precisely timed? You couldn't tell.

　　[INT. LADY SYBIL'S BEDROOM - EVENING]

　　[Anna fetches Sybil's shoes.]

　　[INT. DRAWING ROOM - EVENING]

　　ISOBEL CRAWLEY

　　I think her food is delicious.

　　VIOLET, DOWAGER COUNTESS OF GRANTHAM

　　Naturally.

　　[INT. LADY SYBIL'S BEDROOM - EVENING]

　　[Sybil giggles and Anna fixes a cloth in her hair. Sybil shows off the complete look to Anna and Anna giggles.]

　　[INT. DRAWING ROOM - EVENING]

　　[Sybil rushes down the stairs and enters.]

　　LADY SYBIL

　　Good evening, everyone.

　　[Sybil shows off her new trouser frock. Everyone's jaws drop. Matthew grins. Branson peeks in through the window and smiles.]