It was outside the bounds of the old Residency, for the ground held had,
since the arrival of Havelock's force, been considerably extended, and the
ladies had had two rooms assigned to them in a large building. Dick
knocked at the door of the room, and the ayah opened it--looked at him--
gave a scream, and ran back into the room, leaving the door open. Dick,
seeing that it was a sitting-room, followed her in. Mrs. Hargreaves,
alarmed at the cry, had just risen from her chair, and Nelly and Edith ran
in from the inner room as Dick entered. A general cry of astonishment
broke from them.

"Dick Warrener!" Mrs. Hargreaves exclaimed. "Is it possible? My clear boy,
thank God I see you again. And your brother?"

"He escaped too," Dick said.

Mrs. Hargreaves took him in her arms and kissed him as a dear relative
would have done; for during the month they had been together the boys had
become very dear to her, from their unvarying readiness to aid all who
required it, from their self-devotion and their bravery. Nor were the
girls less pleased, and they warmly embraced the young sailor, whom they
had come to look upon as if he had been a member of the family, and whom
they had wept as dead.

For a time all were too much moved to speak more than a few disjointed
words, for the sad changes which had occurred since they had last met were
present in all their thoughts. Nelly, the youngest, was the first to
recover, and wiping away her tears, she said, half-laughing, half-crying:

"I hate you, Dick, frightening us into believing that you were killed,