But they were scarcely got to her drawing-room when her artificial courage failed her, and she burst into tears on the sofa by Mrs.Laws' side, just in the midst of a compliment from that lady.

"Ah, madam!" she said, "it may be an honour, as you say, to have the King's representative in my house, and our family has received greater personages than Mr.Braddock.But he comes to take one of my sons away from me.

Who knows whether my boy will return, or how?
I dreamed of him last night as wounded, and quite white, with blood streaming from his side.

I would not be so ill-mannered as to let my grief be visible before the gentlemen; but, my good Mrs.Justice, who has parted with children, and who has a mother's heart of her own, would like me none the better, if mine were very easy this evening." The ladies administered such consolations as seemed proper or palatable to their hostess, who tried not to give way further to her melancholy, and remembered that she had other duties to perform, before yielding to her own sad mood.

"It will be time enough, madam, to be sorry when they are gone," she said to the Justice's wife, her good neighbour.