oped
for holiday times, feasting and debauchery with impunity during the
rejoicings which would have accompanied a christening, turned tartly
upon the little valet, telling him that he should let Sir Robert know
how he had received the tidings which should have filled any faithful
servant with sorrow; and having once broken the ice, he was proceeding
with increasing fluency, when his harangue was cut short and his
temerity punished, by the little man raising his head and treating him
to a scowl so fearful, half-demoniac, half-insane, that it haunted his
imagination in nightmares and nervous tremors for months after.

To this man Lady Ardagh had, at first sight, conceived an antipathy
amounting to horror, a mixture of loathing and dread so very powerful
that she had made it a particular and urgent request to Sir Robert, that
he would dismiss him, offering herself, from that property which Sir
Robert had by the marriage settlements left at her own disposal, to
provide handsomely for him, provided only she might be relieved from
the continual anxiety and discomfort which the fear of encountering him
induced.

Sir Robert, however, would not hear of it; the request seemed at first
to agitate and distress him; but when still urged in defiance of his
peremptory refusal, he burst into a violent fit of fury; he spoke
darkly of great sacrifices which he had made, and threatened that if the
request were at any time renewed he would leave both her and the country
for ever. This was, however, a solitary instance of violence; his
general conduct towards Lady Ardagh, though at no time uxorious, was
certainly kind and respectful, and he was more than repaid in the
fervent attachment which she bore him in return.

Some short time after this strange interview between Sir Robert and
Lady Ardagh; one night after the family had retired to bed, and when
everything had been quiet for some time, the bell of Sir Robert's
dressing-room rang suddenly and violently; the ringing was repeated
again and again at still shorter intervals, and with increasing
violence, as if the person who pulled the bell was agitated by the
presence of some terrifying and imminent danger. A servant named Donovan
was the first to answer it; he threw on his clothes, and hurried to the
room.

Sir Robert had selected for his private room an apartment remote from
the bed-chambers of the castle, most of which lay in the more modern
parts of the mansion, and secured at i