CHAPTER XIII.
Sarah Hewel ran into the drawing-room before Lady Mary found courage to put her newly gained composure to the test, by joining the crowd on the terrace.
"Oh, Lady Mary, are you there ?" she cried, pausing in her eager passage to the window.

"I thought you would be out-of-doors with the others!" "Sarah, my dear!" said Lady Mary, kissing her.
"I--I saw all the people," said Sarah, in a breathless, agitated way, "I heard the news, and I wasn't sure whether I ought to come to luncheon all the same or not; so I slipped in by the side door to see whether I could find some one to ask quietly.

Oh!" cried Sarah, throwing her arms impetuously round Lady Mary's neck, "tell me it isn't true ?" "My boy has come home," said Lady Mary.
Sarah turned from red to white, and from white to red again.
"But they said," she faltered--"they said he--" "Yes, my dear," said Lady Mary, understanding; and the tears started to her own eyes.

"Peter has lost an arm, but otherwise--otherwise," she said, in trembling tones, "my boy is safe and sound." Sarah turned away her face and cried.
Lady Mary was touched.

"Why, Sarah!" she said; and she drew the girl down beside her on the sofa and kissed her softly.
"I am sorry to be so silly," said Sarah, recovering herself.