She picked it up and brushed the dust from it, and laid it across a chair.

This done, she put the light back on the table, and going to the window, listened for the first sounds of the German advance.

The faint passage of the wind through some trees near at hand was the only sound that caught her ears.
She turned from the window, and seated herself at the table, thinking.
Was there any duty still left undone that Christian charity owed to the dead?
Was there any further service that pressed for performance in the interval before the Germans appeared?
Mercy recalled the conversation that had passed between her ill-fated companion and herself.

Miss Roseberry had spoken of her object in returning to England.

She had mentioned a lady--a connection by marriage, to whom she was personally a stranger--who was waiting to receive her.