"You must go to him on the morrow, my child, without hesitation. Such a tie is too sacred to be thrown away lightly." Here she paused, and laying her hand on my arm, said, in tones of the deepest feeling, "Marguerite, when you are an old woman like me, I pray you may never have to look back with regret on an opportunity for reconciliation cast aside." She spake with such intense emotion that I could not doubt I had unwittingly stirred some painful memory of her past, but in a moment she recovered, and said, tenderly: "Remember, you both lay on the same breast; you looked into the same mother's eyes. Think of the pain it would cause her to know that there is anything in her children's hearts towards each other, save the love with which she filled them. But I need not say more; I see your intent in your face. Remember, too, we need all the interest we can command with our new guests. Now get some rest, my child; you are worn out." When I awakened in the morning I found the whole community astir, for all night long the wounded had been brought in, until every bed and corner was occupied, and even the barns, sheds, and outhouses were filled to overflowing. French and English lay side by side, helpless and patient. As I crossed the hall I noticed a big Highland sergeant lying on a stretcher, waiting until some place was found for him, with the sweat standing in great beads on his forehead. He muttered some kind of a prayer in Gaelic as I passed, and at the sound of the once familiar tongue I stopped, and, bending over him, wiped away the perspiration, and spake to him in his own language. He stared at me in the utmost astonishment, and then swore a great oath, and the tears filled his eyes. I at last found a soldier who was not on duty, and by him sent a message to Captain Nairn that a lady desired speech with him when he was at liberty. He returned with word that the Captain fixed eleven o'clock, and at that hour I awaited in the parlour. As I waited I wondered that I had ever made any question of meeting him; I could even see that his choice of life had its defence, from a man's point of view. A soldier is first of all a soldier, and waiting the heaviest of his duties; though he is ready to suffer incredibly for his cause when it is active, it is the women who keep the personal attachments alive through the weary days when everything but hope is dead. I spake at once on his entrance. "Archie, I am your sister Margaret." "My dearest Peggy!" was all he said, but he caught me in his strong arms and nearly crushed the breath out of me. He petted and fondled me, calling me by every dear name of childhood, until my heart was nigh to bursting with this treasure of love lavished upon me when I least expected it.