'Now, Dorcas, mind, there must be no trifling. You must not treat me as Rachel has. If you can't keep a secret--for it _is_ a secret--say so. Shall I tell you?' 'Yes, Stanley--yes. I'm your wife.' 'Well, Dorcas, I told you something of it; but only a part, and some circumstances I _did_ intentionally colour a little; but I could not help it, unless I had told everything; and no matter what you or Rachel may say, it was kinder to withhold it as long as I could.' He glanced at the door, and spoke in a lower tone. And so, with his eyes lowered to the table at which he sat, glancing ever and anon sideways at the door, and tracing little figures with the tip of his finger upon the shining rosewood, he went on murmuring his strange and hateful story in the ear of his wife. It was not until he had spoken some three or four minutes that Dorcas suddenly uttered a wild scream, and started to her feet. And Stanley also rose precipitately, and caught her in his arms, for she was falling. As he supported her in her chair, the library door opened, and the sinister face of Uncle Lorne looked in, and returned the captain's stare with one just as fixed and horrified. 'Hush!' whispered Uncle Lorne, and he limped softly into the room, and stopped about three yards away, 'she is not dead, but sleepeth.' 'Hallo! Larcom,' shouted Lake. 'I tell you she's dreaming the same dream that I dreamt in the middle of the night.' 'Hallo! Larcom.' 'Mark's on leave to-night, in uniform; his face is flattened against the window. This is his lady, you know.' 'Hallo! D-- you--are you there?' shouted the captain, very angry. 'I saw Mark following you like an ape, on all-fours; such nice white teeth! grinning at your heels. But he can't bite yet--ha, ha, ha! Poor Mark!' 'Will you be so good, Sir, as to touch the bell?' said Lake, changing his tone. He was afraid to remove his arm from Dorcas, and he was splashing water from a glass upon her face and forehead. 'No--no. No bell yet--time enough--ding, dong. You say, dead and gone.' Captain Lake cursed him and his absent keeper between his teeth; still in a rather flurried way, prosecuting his conjugal attentions. 'There was no bell for poor Mark; and he's always listening, and stares so. A cat may look, you know.' 'Can't you touch the bell, Sir? What are you standing there for?' snarled Lake, with a glare at the old man. He looked as if he could have murdered him. 'Standing between the living and the dead!' 'Here, Reuben, here; where the devil have you been--take him away. He has terrified her. By ---- he ought to be shot.' The keeper silently slid his arm into Uncle Lorne's, and, unresisting, the old man talking to himself the while, drew him from the room. Larcom, about to announce Miss Lake, and closely followed by that young lady, passed the grim old phantom on the lobby. 'Be quick, you are wanted there,' said the attendant as he passed.