k about the contents of the envelopes. So numerous were the men
that the work had to be done with business-like celerity, but the
visitor was experienced. While wasting no time in useless delay, she
never hurried her movements, or refused to stop and speak, or forced her
way through the moving throng. Almost unobserved, save by the men who
chanced to be next to her, she glided in and out amongst them like a
spirit of light--which, in the highest sense, she was--intent on her
beneficent mission. Her sole aim was to save the men from the
tremendous dangers that awaited them on landing in Portsmouth, and bring
them under Christian influence.

Those dangers may be imagined when it is told that soldiers returning
from abroad are often in possession of large sums of money, and that
harpies of all kinds are eagerly waiting to plunder them on their
arrival. On one occasion a regiment came home, and in a few days
squandered three thousand pounds in Portsmouth. Much more might be said
on this point, but enough has been indicated to move thoughtful minds--
and our story waits.

Suddenly the attention of Miles, and every one near him, was attracted
by the loud Hibernian yell of a female voice exclaiming--

"Oh, Terence, me darlin' son, here ye are; an' is it yersilf lookin'
purtier a long way than the day ye left me; an' niver so much as a
scratch on yer face for all the wars ye've bin in--bad luck to thim!"

Need we say that this was Mrs Flynn? In her anxiety to meet her son
she had run against innumerable men and women, who remonstrated with her
variously, according to temperament, without, however, the slightest
effect. Her wild career was not checked until she had flung herself
into the arms of a tall, stalwart trooper with drooping moustache, who
would have done credit to any nationality under the sun, and whose
enthusiasm at the happy meeting with his mother was almost as
demonstrative as her own, but more dignified.

Others there were, however, whose case was very different. One who came
there to meet the strong healthy man, to whom she had said good-bye at
the same spot several years before, received him back a worn and wasted
invalid, upright still with the martial air of discipline, but feeble,
and with something like the stamp of death upon his brow. Another woman
found her son, strong indeed and healthy, as of yore, but with an empty
sleeve where his right arm should have been--his days of warfare over
be