At last she left them alone together, and the door had hardly closed behind her when Sarah was on her knees by her father's chair, asking him to forgive and forget all the unkind speeches she had made about his marriage. Mr. Brown was delighted at the reconciliation, as he loved his daughter most dearly, and they spent one of the happiest hours together they had ever passed. Sarah went with a light heart back to her work, feeling that certainly peace was better than strife, and wondering how she had managed to keep up the disturbance for so long. Many weeks elapsed with no noteworthy events, and Sarah felt quite happy and established in her situation, knowing that she was earning enough money to prevent her from being any sort of burden to her father or stepmother. Lady James was at this time rather delicate, having had a bad attack of rheumatic fever, from which she had, however, almost recovered. One day there was to be a large dinner-party in the house, and Edith, Sarah's friend, the housemaid, was going to look over the staircase at all the smart dresses, and had promised to tell Sarah, who could not be spared, all about them. Eight o'clock arrived, and Edith ran upstairs to watch the ladies come, and go down to dinner. She had never seen so many grand-looking people, and her heart was filled with longing desire to possess only one dress half as beautiful as the ones she saw. There was her mistress looking lovely in deep pink satin, her wonderful hair crowned by a tiara of diamonds and pearls. When the dining-room door had shut them off from Edith's eyes, she went downstairs into the drawing-room, and, putting all thoughts of dresses and diamonds out of her head, busied herself in smoothing the covers, shaking up the cushions, and putting chairs and sofas straight again. When her work was over, she joined the others downstairs, not at all objecting to taste some of the dishes which came down from the dinner party. At half-past eleven all the visitors had left, and Sarah was lazily sitting down chatting away to the other servants, who all felt that they deserved a little rest after such a busy evening. At last Sarah and Edith took up their candles to go to bed, leaving the others still talking. On the way Sarah heard Sir Alfred and Lady James going upstairs to their rooms, so she told Edith she was going to have one look at her beautiful mistress, and Edith had better come too, so they went up by the back staircase and peeped through the swing door. Sir Alfred was behind his wife, when suddenly Edith gave a loud cry, and rushed downstairs again before Sarah had time to see what had happened.