"Hear, O Israel!" wailed Flutter-Duck. "Since he came in this morning everything has been upside down." The goose chuckled. Lewis was seized with a fell terror that gave him a mad courage. Murmuring a holy phrase, he grabbed at the goose, which eluded him, and fluttered flappingly hither and thither. Lewis gave chase, his lips praying mechanically. At last he caught it by a wing, haled it, hissing and struggling and uttering rasping cries, to the window, flung it without, and closed the sash with a bang. Then he fell impotent against the work-table, and spat out a mouthful of blood. "God be praised!" said Flutter-Duck, slowly uncovering her eyes. "Now Rachel will come back." And with renewed hope they waited on, and the deathly silence again possessed the room. All at once they heard a light step under the window; the father threw it open and saw a female form outlined in the darkness. There was a rat-tat-tat at the door. "Ah, there she is!" hysterically ejaculated Flutter-Duck, starting up. "The Holy One be blessed!" cried Lewis, rushing down the stairs. A strange figure, the head covered by a green tartan shawl, greeted him. A cold ague passed over his limbs. "Thank God, it's all right," said Mrs. Lefkovitch. "I see from your light you are still working; but isn't it time my Emanuel left off?" "Your Emanuel?" gasped Lewis, with a terrible suspicion. "He went home early in the day; he was taken ill." Flutter-Duck, who had crept at his heels bearing a candle, cried out, "God in Israel! She has flown away with Emanuel." "Hush, you piece of folly!" whispered Lewis furiously. "Yes, it was already arranged, and you blamed me!" gasped Flutter-Duck, with a last instinct of self-defence ere consciousness left her, and she fell forward. "Silence," Lewis began, but there was an awful desolation at his heart and the salt of blood was in his mouth as he caught the falling form. The candlestick rolled to the ground, and the group was left in the heavy shadows of the staircase and the cold blast from the open door. "God have mercy on me and the poor children! I knew all along it would come to that!" wailed Emanuel's wife. "And I advanced him his week's money on Monday," Lewis remembered in the agony of the moment. CHAPTER IV. POOR FLUTTER-DUCK. "Her cap blew off, her gown blew up, And a whirlwind cleared the larder." --TENNYSON: _The Goose_. It was New Year's Eve.