y his side forever, through rain and
storm. But he, careful of her health, laughingly insisted upon
"bringing his little lamb under cover." "We must take care not to catch
cold," he said. "There are certain times when a cold stands very much
in the way of lovers. Come, my darling! I feel as if I should like to
dance all night long with you. Good Heavens! what work we shall have in
making up for lost time!"

She hung on his arm in full submission. But at this moment they heard
the dying howl of the old animal, horribly breaking in upon the
stillness of the night.

"What is that?" said Felix. "That sounds altogether too serious for any
masquerading joke. In the tropics I was used to such nocturnal voices,
and slept quietly in spite of them. But here, under this wintry sky--"

He hurried her toward the house. Then they saw a back-door suddenly
thrown open, and two muffled figures rush out hastily and run toward a
carriage that was standing waiting in the side-street, about thirty
steps from the house, just as on the night when the burning picture
disappeared.

They could distinguish nothing but the outline of a monk's cowl.

"Rosenbusch!" cried Felix.

But this call merely had the effect of causing the fleeing persons to
redouble their speed. The next moment they reached the carriage, and
something white gleamed in the darkness, which Felix's keen eye thought
it recognized as the fustanella of the young Greek; then the door
was slammed-to, and the carriage rolled off into the darkness at a
break-neck pace.

The pair gazed after it in amazement.

"What can it mean?" cried Irene.

Felix said nothing, but shook his head and hurried her on toward the
door. They found Fridolin at his post, but with eyes that glared so
from fright and sudden awakening that they did not stop to ask him any
questions, but, throwing off their wet wraps, hastened into the hall.

Here a most startling sight greeted their view.

Jansen was crouched motionless on the floor, holding on his knee the
bloody head of the dog, his gaze fixed on the stiff, outstretched limbs
of his old friend, whose convulsive twitching marked the last pulsation
of his ebbing blood.

Julie was kneeling at his side, taking no heed of her yellow skirts,
that were spotted with large stains from the dark pool. Their friends
were standing about them, completely stupefied; and even the musicians
crept down from the platform, in their grotesque animal costumes, and
m