adually, that you are home. I
came in like a fool, suddenly, and mamma fainted--she says for the
first time in her life--and Milly went into hysterics, and cried
and laughed so wildly that you might have heard her in Dijon. She
frightened me nearly out of my senses."

Ralph remained, accordingly, outside the door; while Percy went in
alone. The others had finished tea.

"You are a little late, Percy," Mrs. Barclay said. "We gave you
twenty minutes' law. It is not the least matter, your being late;
but I do not think it is wise to be out, these bitter nights, until
you are quite strong."

"I am quite strong, mamma, as strong as ever," Percy laughed; but
his laugh was, in spite of himself, a little unnatural.

His father looked sharply up.

Percy sat down, and drank a little of the tea his mother handed to
him.

"I waited for the train to come in," he said, "and--of course it
may not be so--but I heard of someone who, by the description,
seemed to be Ralph."

"What was it, Percy, what was it?" Milly cried; while her mother
gazed at him with a pale face, and appealing eyes.

"Don't agitate yourself, mamma dear--you see, it may not be true,
after all--but among the people in the train was one who had come
straight from Bourges. I spoke to him, and he said that he had
heard--by a friend who had come straight from Vierzon--that a young
officer had just arrived there, in disguise; who had been wounded,
and in hiding, ever since the capture of Orleans. You know, mamma,
it is just the time I calculated he would be coming; and from the
fact of his being a young staff officer, and in disguise, I have
very little doubt it is Ralph."

Captain Barclay rose from his seat and--standing for a moment
behind his wife's chair--looked at Percy, and then at the door,
inquiringly. Percy nodded.

Captain Barclay leaned over, and kissed his wife

"Thank God, dear, for all His mercies! Another day or two, and we
shall be having him home."

"Thank God, indeed!" Mrs. Barclay said; "but though I hope--though
I try to think it was him--perhaps it was not, perhaps--"

"No, mamma," Percy said, "from some particulars he gave, and from
what he said, I feel almost sure--I may say I am quite sure--it is
Ralph. I would not say so, you know, unless I felt very certain."

Mrs. Barclay felt that he would not, and fell into her husband's
arms, crying softly with happiness.

Milly was no longer in the room. She had caught the glance between