She hurried over to the brick house across the Rothel; rapped at the kitchen door and, upon the girl's opening it, gave the jelly to her with Mrs. Caukins' message. She assured Ellen, who begged her to come in, that she would run over if possible a little later in the evening. A low whine and prolonged snuffing made themselves audible while the two talked together in low tones at the door. They seemed to proceed from the vicinity of the dining-room door. "Where's Rag?" said Aileen, listening intently to the muffled sounds. "I shut him up in the dining-room closet when I see you come up the walk; he goes just wild to get with you any chance he can, and Mrs. Googe told me she wanted to keep him round the house nights." "Then be careful he doesn't get out to-night--supposing you chain him up just for once." "Oh, I couldn't do that; Mrs. Googe wouldn't let me; but I'll see he doesn't follow you. I do wish you would come in--it's so lonesome," she said again wistfully. "I can't now, Ellen; but if I can get away after eight, I may run over and sit with you a while. I'm staying with Mrs. Caukins because the Colonel is away to-night." "So I heard; 'Lias told me just now on his way down to the village. He said he wouldn't be gone long, for the Colonel wasn't to home.--I wonder what they've turned on all the lights for?" she said, craning her neck to look farther up the road. Aileen made no reply. She cautioned her again to keep Rag at home. A series of muffled but agonized yelps followed her down the walk. She stood still in the road and looked about her. Everywhere the great quarry arc-lights were sending their searching rays out upon the quarries and their approaches. "What shall I do--oh, what _shall_ I do!" was her hopeless unuttered cry. It seemed to Aileen Armagh, standing there in the road at the entrance to the bridge, as if a powerful X-ray were being directed at that moment upon her whole life so far as she remembered it; and not only upon that, but upon her heart and soul--her thoughts, desires, her secret agony; as if the ray, in penetrating her body and soul, were laying bare her secret to the night:--she still loved him. "Oh, what shall I do--what _shall_ I do!" was the continual inner cry.