Nesbitt burst into the room and enlightened them. "Oh, if you please, ma'am, Peggy is burnt to death!" It was a startling announcement, but when Mrs. Dale saw the blackened and unconscious little figure she almost feared it was true. In one hand she still grasped her stocking, in the other was Captain D'Arcy's despatch-box. The young man took it from her clasp with some emotion. "What a little trump! She must have heard my words, and gone straight to get it." After a short consultation, poor Peggy was conveyed in a cab to the nearest hospital, Captain D'Arcy going with her himself. And, thoroughly unstrung, Mrs. Dale sat down and burst into tears. Nesbitt drew near to sympathise, but hardly to comfort. "Lucy and I have often said, ma'am, that she be quite unnatural for goodness. They say them that have short lives have to make up for it, and gets all their goodness crammed up one end, so to speak. I never did hear a young girl so simple and earnest about her religion, and we have remarked that she would die early. They always do, that class o' girl, but it do seem so terrible an end. I really don't think, ma'am, there were any life in her when she were brought out. She must have been suffocated where she dropped, and perhaps it was a mercy!" "Faithful unto death!" murmured Mrs. Dale, trying to compose herself. "Oh, Peggy, how you have shamed us all!" A couple of hours later the fire was extinguished, and the crowd dispersed. Only one or two firemen and police guarded the house. In the early morning Captain D'Arcy returned to his aunt. "She is alive, Aunt, but very badly burnt. I am afraid she may not recover." And this was the fear of both nurses and doctors who attended her. The days and nights seemed a long delirium of pain and fever to Peggy. But the day came when she recovered consciousness, and began to inquire where she was. "In a hosspital," she repeated weakly; "and, has missus got another girl to do my work? What's been the matter with me?" "You got burnt," said the nurse gently; "but you are getting better. Don't think about it." Peggy moved her head restlessly on the pillow; then she put one of her bandaged hands to her head. "I feel so light-headed; where be my hair? Have you cropped me like the workhouse girls?" A frightened look was in her eyes. The nurse wondered at her vanity. "Your hair was burnt," she said. "It had to be cut off." Peggy looked at her in dismay; then tears trickled down her cheeks. "How can I fasten my caps on?" she sobbed. "I'd jist got 'em to look so nice. I'll never be able to go back to my place. If my hair be gone, caps is no use, and my missus won't have girls with no caps." "Look here," said the nurse determinedly, "you leave your caps and your hair alone. You won't be fit for service yet awhile, and by that time, who knows? Your hair will be grown, and you'll be your old self again. Now drink this beef-tea, and stop talking!"