e!" pleaded Gertrude. "He will drown
himself!"

"He can't," sneered Miss Fithian; "the fish-pond is frozen over."

"I would advise you, sir," now remarked Mrs. Rutherford to her husband,
in a voice of suppressed passion, "to follow your fellow-criminal."

"I will, madam," he retorted, in a like tone of restrained fury; "and
since you actually presume to order me from my own house, I go--never to
return." As he spoke, he too passed out through the window.

A momentary awe seemed to oppress those remaining at the table. The
silence was soon broken, however, by Wildfen saying to his wife:

"A pretty row you've made all around, haven't you?"

"I!" exclaimed Lydia, in amazement.

"Yes, you."

"How?"

"Why, by giving Mrs. Honey a letter of introduction to Mrs.
Rutherford--as you confessed to me you did."

"I'm sure I didn't mean any harm by it."

"You did," persisted the quarrelsome Wildfen. "You're always making
mischief and pretending you don't mean to."

"I'm not."

"You are. And I want to tell you, once for all, that I'm tired of your
eternally contradicting me. Do it once more, just once, and I'll follow
the other gentlemen."

"Who cares if you do?"

"You do."

"I don't."

"What! already! Now I _am_ off;" and he sprang up and started for the
window.

"Good-bye, and good riddance," Lydia called out, as his form vanished in
the darkness without, and the window closed behind him with a slam; then
sank back in her chair, laughing hysterically. This roused Mrs.
Rutherford from the semi-stupor into which she had sunk.

"Laugh," she said bitterly, rousing herself; "laugh while my heart is
breaking. No, do not speak. I want no sympathy, no pity. I know his
perfidy now, and shall know how to act."

"Why! what's happened to Mrs. Plowden?" exclaimed Lydia.

"She has been in a faint since her villain escaped," replied Miss
Fithian, who was supporting the unconscious form, "and I've been trying
to revive her."

"Open the window," suggested Edna.

"No, don't," cried the contradictory Lydia. "If you do, I'll catch my
death of cold."

"She's coming to," said Mrs. Honey. "Oh, here's the punch coming in.
Give her a drink of that and she will be all right."

Sam, who brought in the steaming punch-bowl and placed it upon the
table, stared about him in amazement, unable to comprehend the
mysterious disappearance of all the gentlemen. He knew that Mr. Honey
had gone out by the front door, but, the window bei