The cry was so peculiar, and impressed its hearers so painfully, that they stood looking at each other, Gertrude with blanched cheeks, and Mrs Hampton, who had not outgrown the superstitious dread common to most natures suffering from a nervous tremor that she had not felt for years. She was the first to speak with assumed cheerfulness. "Why, it's that dog," she said. "I declare for the moment it quite startled me?" "Yes," said Gertrude, with her voice sounding husky and strange, "it was the dog." But neither moved to do what was most natural under the circumstances: to go and pat and pacify the poor animal, neither did they discuss the possibility of how it was injured, but stood listening for its next cry, and both started violently as the door was opened and Mrs Denton, white and trembling, hurried into the room. "Did--did you hear that, Miss Gertrude?" she said in an awe-stricken whisper. "Do you mean poor Bruno's howl?" "Yes, miss," said the old woman in the same low tone of voice. "The poor thing is in pain, I suppose." "No, miss, it isn't that," said Denton slowly. "If he was hurt, he would yelp sharply. He has got something on his mind." "Don't be such a ridiculous old woman, Denton!" cried Mrs Hampton impatiently, to cover her own dread. "Dogs have no minds. They howl sometimes because it's their nature to." "Yes, ma'am," said the old housekeeper respectfully, but speaking in a very slow, impressive tone; "because it is their nature to howl when they know there's death on the way." "Gertrude, my dear, for goodness' sake don't you be superstitious. It's absurd. It is what you have just heard--an old woman's tale. Why, if dogs howled because there was death about, they'd pass their days doing nothing else, and wouldn't have time even to wag their tails." "Denton, you are old enough to know better." "Yes, ma'am, I'm seventy years and three months old, and I suppose I ought to know better, but I don't." "There is nothing to mind, Denton," said Gertrude gently. "Poor Bruno quite startled me for the moment, but he has settled down now, and--" She stopped short, for the dog again uttered the same long, low howl--a cry which sounded more impressive than the one they had heard before. Gertrude's face looked ghastly, and for a moment she reeled and caught at Mrs Hampton's trembling hand, while the old housekeeper sank upon her knees and buried her face in her apron. Gertrude was the first to recover her presence of mind. "How childish!" she said, as she crossed to the old woman where she knelt. "Denton, dear, don't think so seriously of such a trifle. There is no truth in these old superstitious ideas."