Mrs. Streightley's "church-books" lay upon a shelf near one of the windows. She rarely used the Common Prayer-book, inclining rather to dissenting forms of worship; so Robert found the book without difficulty. He sat down beside the fire, and read the Burial Service throughout, half aloud; and as he concluded it, heavy sleep fell upon him suddenly, as it had done a few times lately since he had not been so strong and well as formerly. He slept on, though the wintry dawn came and the fire died out; and when the housemaid came into the room in the morning, "it gave her," as she described it, "quite a turn, to see the master a-sittin' there asleep, and the gas a-burnin' in the broad daylight." Old Alice came bustling in to rouse and scold him; and Robert, feeling very much ashamed of himself, went off sheepishly to bathe and dress. He looked and felt much better after those restoratives, and assured Alice that it had not harmed him to sleep on a chair instead of his bed; he felt just a little giddy of course, but it was nothing, he told her. He told himself it was the expectation of the post-hour, and the news it would bring. He did not venture to ask Alice to leave him to breakfast alone this morning; so the old woman was in the room when the expected letter arrived. It was very short; and with his first glance at it, he said: "She will be here this evening, Alice; she comes by the day-mail." "Thank God!" said the old woman fervently. "I am thankful there's to be no more waiting; for you ain't fit for it, Robert, my boy, and that's the truth." "The train comes in at six; she will be here before seven. Mr. Yeldham is coming with her. Is every thing ready, Alice?" "Every thing, Master Robert. I will have the fire lighted in her room immediately, and the things all put straight; and then you can look at it, and satisfy yourself. And you won't worry yourself--will you promise me not to worry yourself?" "I worry myself!--no, indeed, nurse. I think that nothing can ever harm or grieve or 'worry' me, as you call it, any more." Then he told her he must go into the City for an hour or two: and he took a kind leave of her and went. The old woman sat down on the chair he had vacated, and burst into an unaccountable fit of crying. "I am an old fool, to be sure, if ever there was one!" she said irritably, after a few minutes; "but I can't help it--there's something over me, though I'm glad for my dear boy. Now that _that's_ over, I'll go and look after those girls, and see what's best to have for her dinner." It was nearly four o'clock when Robert returned; and he came in a cab which looked like a small conservatory on wheels, for every available space in it was filled with flowers. He carried the pots and the bouquets carefully into the house; and having assured Alice that he was not hungry--for her anxiety on that point had not slumbered since his infancy--he asked her if the rooms upstairs were ready.