So unexpected was the sound in the absolute stillness that he started with some violence and nearly knocked over the reading-lamp at his elbow. Then sharply and frowning he arose. He reached the window and fumbled at the blind; but failing to find the cord dragged it impatiently aside and peered through the glass. "Who is it? What do you want?" A face he knew, but so drawn and deathly that for the moment it seemed almost unfamiliar, peered back at him. In a second he had the window unfastened and flung wide. "Dick! In heaven's name, boy,--what's the matter?" Dick was over the sill in a single bound. He stood up and faced the squire, bare-headed, drenched with rain, his eyes burning with a terrible fire. "I have come for my wife," he said. "Your wife! Juliet!" The squire stared at him as if he thought him demented. "Why, she left ages ago, man,--soon after tea!" "Yes, yes, I know," Dick said. He spoke rapidly, but with decision. "But she came back here an hour or two ago. You are giving her shelter. Saltash brought her--or no--she probably came alone." "You are mad!" said Fielding, and turned to shut the window. "She hasn't been near since she left this evening." "Wait!" Dick's hand shot out and caught his arm, restraining him. "Do you swear to me that you don't know where she is?" The squire stood still, looking full and hard into the face so near his own; and so looking, he realized, what he had not grasped before, that it was the face of a man in torture. The savage grip on his arm told the same story. The fiery eyes that stared at him out of the death-white countenance had the awful look of a man who sees his last hope shattered. Impulsively he laid his free hand upon him. "Dick--Dick, old chap,--what's all this? Of course I don't know where she is! Do you think I'd lie to you?" "Then I've lost her!" Dick said, and with the words some inner vital spring seemed to snap within him. He flung up; his arms, freeing himself with a wild gesture. "My God, she has gone--gone with that scoundrel!" "Saltash?" said the squire sharply. "Yes. Saltash!" He ground the name between his teeth. "Does that surprise you so very much? Don't you know the sort of infernal blackguard he is?" The squire turned again to shut the window. "Damn it, Dick! I don't believe a word of it," he said with vigour. "Get your wind and have a drink, and let's hear the whole story! Have you and Juliet been quarrelling?" Dick ignored his words as if he had not spoken. "You needn't shut the window," he said. "I'm going again. I'm going now." It was the squire's turn to assert himself, and he seized it. He shut the window with a bang. "You are not, Dick! Don't be a fool! Sit down! Do you hear? Sit down! You're not going yet--not till you've told me the whole trouble. So you can make up your mind to that!"