lonel Le Noir sternly reprimanded his domestic manager for her
neglect of his orders and dismissed her from his presence.

The remainder of the day was passed by him in moody thought. That
evening he summoned his son to a private conference in the parlor--an
event that happily delivered poor Clara Day from their presence at her
fireside.

That night Clara, dreading lest at the end of their interview they
might return to her society, retired early to her chamber where she sat
reading until a late hour, when she went to bed and found transient
forgetfulness of trouble in sleep.

She did not know how long she had slept when she was suddenly and
terribly awakened by a woman's shriek sounding from the room
immediately overhead, in which, upon the night previous, Capitola had
slept.

Starting up in bed, Clara listened.

The shriek was repeated--prolonged and piercing--and was accompanied by
a muffled sound of struggling that shook the ceiling overhead.

Instinctively springing from her bed, Clara threw on her dressing-gown
and flew to the door; but just as she turned the latch to open it she
heard a bolt slipped on the outside and found herself a prisoner in her
own chamber.

Appalled, she stood and listened.

Presently there came a sound of footsteps on the stairs and a heavy
muffled noise as of some dead weight being dragged down the staircase
and along the passage. Then she heard the hall door cautiously opened
and shut. And, finally, she distinguished the sound of wheels rolling
away from the house.

Unable longer to restrain herself, she rapped and beat upon her own
door, crying aloud for deliverance.

Presently the bolt was withdrawn, the door jerked open and Dorcas
Knight, with a face of horror, stood before her.

"What is the matter! Who was that screaming? In the name of mercy, what
has happened?" cried Clara, shrinking in abhorrence from the ghastly
woman.

"Hush! it is nothing! There were two tomcats screaming and fighting in
the attic, and they fought all the way downstairs, rolling over and
over each other. I've just turned them out," faltered the woman,
shivering as with an ague fit.

"What--what was that--that went away in the carriage?" asked Clara
shuddering.

"The colonel, gone to meet the early stage at Tip-Top, to take him to
Washington. He would have taken leave of you last night, but when he
came to your parlor you had left it."

"But--but--there is blood upon your hand, Dorcas Knigh