etention was of the
shortest."

"And Miss Kellett,--is she free also?" asked one of the bystanders.

"Yes; we came back together. She is up at headquarters, giving Lord
Raglan an account of her capture."

"What is it, Conway?" asked one of the surgeons, suddenly startled by
the intensity of the anxiety in his face. "Are you in pain?"

He shook his head in dissent.

"You are thirsty, perhaps? Will you have something to drink?"

"No," said he, with the faintest possible utterance.

"What is it, then, my poor fellow?" said he, affectionately.

"So it was not a dream!" gasped out Conway.

"What was it you fancied to be a dream?"

"All,--everything but this!" And he pointed to a deep wound from a
sabre-cut in his shoulder.

"Ay, and that, too, will be as a dream some years hence!" said the
other, cheeringly.

It was evident, now, that the excitement of talking and seeing so many
persons about him was injurious, and the surgeons silently motioned to
the bystanders to retire.

"May I remain with him?" asked the lawyer. "If he could give his consent
to certain measures, sign one or two papers, years of litigation might
be saved."

Conway had meanwhile beckoned to the surgeon to approach him; and then,
as the other leaned over the bed, he whispered,--

"Was it true what I have just heard,--was she really here?"

"Miss Kellett, do you mean? Yes; she carried up the news to you herself?
It was she that tied the handkerchief on your wounded artery, too, and
saved your life."

"Here,--in the Crimea? It cannot--cannot be!" sighed Conway.

"She is not the only noble-hearted woman who has left home and friends
to brave perils and face hardships, though, I own, she stands alone for
heroism and daring."

"So, then, it was not a delusion,--I did actually see her in the
trenches?" said Conway, eagerly.

"She was in the advanced parallel the night the Russians surprised the
5th. She was the first to give the alarm of the attack."

"Only think, doctor, of what happened to me that night! I was sent up
at speed to say that reinforcements were coming up. Two companies of the
Royals were already in march. My horse had twice fallen with me, and,
being one-armed, I was a good deal shaken, and so faint when I arrived
that I could scarcely deliver my message. It was just then a woman--I
could only perceive, in the darkness, that she seemed young--gave me her
brandy-flask; after drinking, I turned to give it back to her, but