"Susan, your clock is slow. The down-train is just leaving the junction. They'll be here directly." Susan answers from the bottom of the short staircase: "Let 'em come. Dinner is all ready, and I doubt it'll be spoiled, if they don't come soon, by the time they've got their things off. Where's master?" "In Miss Ellen's room; he's not to be disturbed till they come. O, he'll hear 'em fast enough. There, it's gone the quarter!" Alice comes back to the door, and holding it a little ajar, continues to peep out. Many trains from distant places arrive about this hour, and she is disappointed several times by cabs, luggage-laden, which pass the gate. "I've often heard Master Robert say a quarter of an hour should always be allowed for them foreign trains," the old woman mutters a little impatiently; "but surely they'll soon be here. He'll be worn out with waiting." Seven! They are here. A cab stops at the gate, and Alice calls excitedly to the servants, Susan cannot abandon the dinner, but the others come and concern themselves about the luggage, while she opens wide the door, and a lady and gentleman enter. "Well, nurse," says Mr. Yeldham in an excited voice, "you see I have brought Mrs. Streightley home." "I see, sir," says Alice, trembling. "God bless you, ma'am; and welcome home a thousand times!" Katharine puts out her hand hurriedly, and takes the old woman's; but she does not speak. She is very pale, and her lips are trembling; but she is very, very beautiful. Alice is startled at her beauty. She looks like a queen, she thinks; her deep-mourning dress drapes her like robes. But she has only time for a glimpse of Katharine, for Yeldham leads her quickly into the dining-room, whence he comes out in a moment, and asks Alice, still in the hall, and watching the servants and the cabman carrying the luggage up the little garden walk, "Where's Robert?" Alice explains that he is in the room prepared for Mrs. Streightley, but wonders he has not heard the cab, and is bustling towards the stairs to call him, when Yeldham stops her. "No, nurse; I know the room. I'll take her to him." So he calls Katharine, and she comes quickly; and they go up the stairs together, Alice following. There is light on each landing, and they are soon at the door. Yeldham taps rapidly, and at the same time turns the door-handle; and Katharine, with a swift steady step, passes into the room, into the glow of the light and the warmth and the perfume of the flowers. She sees it all with one quick happy glance; sees the jewels on the table, and recognises them; sees the light glancing upon the scales of the diamond serpent; sees the outstretched arms upon the bed, and the head now laid down upon them. In a moment she is beside the kneeling figure, her hand upon the shoulder, her breath upon the thick brown curls. "Robert! I have come--I am here!"