"My dear Sarah,
"I am afraid you must be very angry with me for not having turned up on Sunday, but on Friday night master told me he wanted me to pack up everything as we were to go on Saturday by the night mail to Scotland, so I really could not get a minute to go and see you. I hope this will find you well as it leaves me, and happier than when I saw you last. I am very happy here, and it is a beautiful place, but a long way off from you. Write to me soon, as I will also to you.
"Your affectionate friend,
"Dick."
Sarah was very much relieved by the contents of this letter, and decided that she would go and see her father as soon as she could. This opportunity soon occurred, and Sarah found him and her stepmother having their supper together. Mr. Brown looked rather sheepishly at his daughter, not quite knowing in what frame of mind she intended to make this visit, but he soon saw that she really was doing her best to set matters straight again.
Mrs. Brown offered her some tea, which Sarah gladly accepted, and they all three talked cheerfully about future plans and past events, not touching, however, on the two chief changes in the family.
At last she left them alone together, and the door had hardly closed behind her when Sarah was on her knees by her father's chair, asking him to forgive and forget all the unkind speeches she had made about his marriage. Mr. Brown was delighted at the reconciliation, as he loved his daughter most dearly, and they spent one of the happiest hours together they had ever passed.
Sarah went with a light heart back to her work, feeling that certainly peace was better than strife, and wondering how she had managed to keep up the disturbance for so long.
Many weeks elapsed with no noteworthy events, and Sarah felt quite happy and established in her situation, knowing that she was earning enough money to prevent her from being any sort of burden to her father or stepmother.
Lady James was at this time rather delicate, having had a bad attack of rheumatic fever, from which she had, however, almost recovered.
One day there was to be a large dinner-party in the house, and Edith, Sarah's friend, the housemaid, was going to look over the staircase at all the smart dresses, and had promised to tell Sarah, who could not be spared, all about them. Eight o'clock arrived, and Edith ran upstairs to watch the ladies come, and go down to dinner. She had never seen so many grand-looking people, and her heart was filled with longing desire to possess only one dress half as beautiful as the ones she saw. There was her mistress looking lovely in deep pink satin, her wonderful hair crowned by a tiara of diamonds and pearls.
When the dining-room door had shut them off from Edith's eyes, she went downstairs into the drawing-room, and, putting all thoughts of dresses and diamonds out of her head, busied herself in smoothing the covers, shaking up the cushions, and putting chairs and sofas straight again.
When her work was over, she joined the others downstairs, not at all objecting to taste some of the dishes which came down from the dinner party.