for a long
time yet."

"May I follow you, madam?" said Miles, stepping forward and touching his
cap in what he supposed to be the deferential manner of a private
soldier. "I am interested in your work, and would like to see the shed
you speak of."

The lady looked up quickly at the tall young soldier who thus addressed
her.

"I saw you in the lobby of the Institute this morning, did I not?"

"You did, madam. I was waiting for a friend who is a frequenter of the
Institute. One of your own people brought me down here to see the
arrival of the _Orontes_, and the coffee-shed; but I have lost him in
the crowd, and know not where the shed is."

"Here it is," returned the lady, pointing to an iron structure just
behind them. "You will find Mr Brown there busy with the coffee, and
that small shed beside it is the shelter-room. You are welcome to
inspect all our buildings at any time."

So saying, the lady led Mrs Martin into the shed last referred to, and
Miles followed her.

There was a small stove, in the solitary iron room of which the shed
consisted, which diffused a genial warmth around. Several soldiers'
wives and female relatives were seated beside it, engaged in quieting
refractory infants, or fitting a few woollen garments on children of
various ages. These garments had been brought from the Institute,
chiefly for the purpose of supplying the wives and children returning
from warmer climes to England; and one of them, a thick knitted shawl,
was immediately presented to Mrs Martin as a gift, and placed round her
shoulders by the lady's own hands.

"You are _very_ kind, Miss," she said, an unbidden tear rolling down her
cheek as she surveyed the garment and folded it over her breast.

"Have you any children?" asked the lady.

"None. We had one--a dear baby boy," answered the young wife sadly,
"born after his father left England. God took him home when he was two
years old. His father never saw him; but we shall all meet again," she
added, brightly, "in the better land."

"Ah! it makes me glad to hear you say that God took him _home_. Only
the spirit of Jesus could make you regard heaven as the home where you
are all to meet again. Now I would advise you to sit here and keep warm
till I go and make inquiry about your husband. It is quite possible,
you know, that he may be in the sick bay, and they won't let any one on
board till the vessel is made fast. You are quite sure, I suppose, that
it w