"Don't talk to me! Don't! My nerves are all of a twitter. I--I--oh, do
let me go to bed! Gertie--why, Gertie, where are you going?"

Gertrude was on her way to the stairs. She did not appear to hear her
mother's question.

"Gertie!" cried Serena again.

There was no answer. The young lady hurried up the stairs and they heard
her chamber door close. Cousin Percy shrugged his shoulders.

"Too bad our friend was called away so suddenly," he observed. "Very
much of a surprise, wasn't it? Too bad."

No one replied, not even Serena, who was not wont to ignore the comments
of her aristocratic relative. Her next remark was in the nature of an
order and was addressed to her husband.

"Come! Come! Come!" she said fretfully. "Do come to bed!"

Daniel, pausing only to extinguish the lights, obeyed. Mr. Hungerford,
with another shrug and a covert smile, preceded him up the stairs. As
the captain was about to enter his bedroom, a voice, which sounded as if
the speaker was half asleep, called from the third floor.

"Is there anything I can do, sir?" asked Hapgood. "I 'ave just been
aroused, sir."

Daniel turned. Here was a heaven-sent vent for his feelings.

"Do!" he repeated. "Anything you can do? Yes, there is. Shut your door
and turn in."

"But, sir--"

"And shut your head along with it!"

There were some inmates of the Dott mansion who, probably, slept
peacefully the remainder of that night, or morning. Cousin Percy
doubtless did, also Mr. Hapgood. Azuba, sleeping at the rear of the
house, had not been awakened at all. But neither Captain Dan or Serena
slept. Mrs. Dott's nerves kept her awake, and the combination prevented
Daniel from napping. Nerves were a new acquisition of Serena's; at least
she had never been conscious of them until recently. Now, however, they
were becoming more and more in evidence. She was fretful and impatient
of trifles, and the least contradiction or upset of her plans was likely
to bring on fits of hysterical weeping. It was so in this case. Daniel,
trotting for smelling salts and extra pillows and the hot water bottle,
was not too calm himself. His plans, the plans founded upon John Doane's
remaining in Scarford for a time, had been decidedly upset. He pleaded
with his wife.

"But I don't see what ails you, Serena," he declared. "John's gone,
that's true enough, but you didn't know he was comin'. He was here, a
little while, and that's some gain, ain't it? I don't see--"

"See! You