How dared you, you knave, permit your young mistress to
ride, unattended, in the face of such a storm, too! Why didn't you go
with her, sir?"

"'Deed, marse----"

"Don't ''deed marse' me you atrocious villain! Saddle a horse quickly,
inquire which road your mistress took and follow and attend her home
safely--after which I intend to break every bone in your skin, sirrah!
So----"

Again he was interrupted by a dazzling flash of lightning, accompanied
by a deafening roll of thunder, and followed by a flood of rain.

Wool stood appalled at the prospect of turning out in such a storm upon
such a fruitless errand.

"Oh, you may stare and roll up your eyes, but I mean it, you varlet! So
be off with you! Go! I don't care if you should be drowned in the rain,
or blown off the horse, or struck by lightning. I hope you may be, you
knave, and I shall be rid of one villain! Off, you varlet, or----" Old
Hurricane lifted a bronze statuette to hurl at Wool's delinquent head,
but that functionary dodged and ran out in time to escape a blow that
might have put a period to his mortal career.

But let no one suppose that honest Wool took the road that night! He
simply ran down-stairs and hid himself comfortably in the lowest
regions of the house, there to tarry until the storms, social and
atmospheric, should be over.

Meanwhile the night deepened, the storm raged without and Old Hurricane
raged within!

The lightning flashed, blaze upon blaze, with blinding glare! The
thunder broke, crash upon crash, with deafening roar! The wind
gathering all its force cannonaded the old walls as though it would
batter down the house! The rain fell in floods! In the midst of all the
Demon's Run, swollen to a torrent, was heard like the voice of a
"roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour!"

Old Hurricane strode up and down the floor, groaning, swearing,
threatening, and at every fresh blast of the storm without, breaking
forth into fury!

Mrs. Condiment sat crouched in a corner, praying fervently every time
the lightning blazed into the room, longing to go and join the men and
maids in the next apartment, yet fearful to stir from her seat lest she
should attract Old Hurricane's attention, and draw down upon herself
the more terrible thunder and lightning of his wrath. But to escape Old
Hurricane's violence was not in the power of mortal man or woman. Soon
her very stillness exasperated him and he broke forth upon her with:

"Mrs. Condi