'A shout burst from the soldiers, and actually breaking their ranks, they rushed forward, and with loud cheers greeted all, but chiefly Lady Sale and her widowed daughter.
'In another moment I had both Mabel and Bella in my arms, till Vassal drew the latter from me. Many now met friends from whom they had long been parted; as if in death. Wives threw themselves into the arms of husbands, daughters embraced fathers, and the artillery fired a salute that shook the hills of Jubeais.
'"Papa—I do not see papa!" said Mabel anxiously.
'"Lay your head on my breast, darling, and I will whisper all!"
'"He is dead, then; and poor mamma too is gone! I have no one in the world——"
'"But me, darling!" said I, as I kissed her tears away and assisted her to remount.
'Here ends my story. We were to have been married when we returned to Old England had not events occurred which I cannot tell you now, but the results of which are swiftly passing away, and I shall be soon able to call her my own after long years of waiting, having had enough and to spare of Afghanistan and the Khyber Mountains.'
