The upshot of this conversation was that Kirkstone lost his temper altogether, and went to bully his sister into revoking her will. Had he only remembered that the same result would be attained by the marriage taking place, he would have urged on the match and defied Ellen. Instead of acting thus sensibly, he vented his rage on Dean, and accused him of encouraging the folly of the housekeeper. Then Dean lost his temper in his turn, and quarrelled with Kirkstone and Laura; so in the month of July, '76, it chanced that the four people inhabiting Kirkstone Hall quite misunderstood one another, and, for the time being, were hardly on speaking terms. Dean stormed at Kirkstone as trying to thwart the proposed marriage; Kirkstone blamed Dean as having encouraged the love of Ellen; and Laura, in her weak way, fretted herself ill over the whole disturbance. Only Ellen, the cause of all the trouble, retained her placidity. She did not move an inch from her position. She had an end to gain, and in one way or another she was determined to gain it. It was while things were in this unhappy state that the country was startled by the news that Kirkstone had been murdered by Dean. The tragedy took place in a certain room strangely furnished by the mother of the present squire, which was known as the Yellow Boudoir. It was a favourite apartment with Kirkstone, who had turned it into a smoking-room. On the night of the 16th of July, Kirkstone and Dean were drinking and smoking in this room, when apparently they renewed their quarrel with a fatal result Kirkstone was found dead in the room at midnight with a knife in his heart. This knife had been brought from America--it was a bowie-knife--by Dean, and his name was marked on the handle. Ellen deposed at the inquest that, guessing the pair might quarrel, she had gone downstairs shortly before midnight to implore them to part. Then she had seen Dean leave the Yellow Boudoir in a state of alarm and alcoholic excitement. Afterwards Kirkstone asked her to tell Dean to come down again. She did so, and Dean rejoined Kirkstone. When they parted for the second time Ellen went to the smoking-room, and found Kirkstone lying dead with Dean's knife in his heart The result of this statement was that Dean was arrested for the murder of his friend, and, mainly on the evidence of Miss Gilmar, he was found guilty. The man protested his innocence in vain, and would have suffered the extreme penalty of the law, but that a sympathizing section of the public, not satisfied with the judgment, prepared a memorial to the Home Secretary. The sentence was then commuted to penal servitude for life.