It seemed to him like an avenging spirit. He shut his eyes for
a moment in abject fright, and the phantom swept by him and leaped like
a white doe upon the platform, through the open window, and out of his
sight. He ran to the gate, quaking and trembling, then walked quietly
to the nearest corner, where he sat down upon the curb-stone and put on
his shoes.

Mrs. Belding followed, as rapidly as she could, the swift flight of her
daughter; but it was some minutes after the young girl had leaped
through the window that her mother walked breathlessly through the
front door and the hall into the library. She saw there a sight which
made her shudder and turn faint. Alice was sitting on the floor,
holding in her lap the blood-dabbled head of Farnham. Beside her stood
a glass of water, a pitcher, and several towels. Some of them were red
and saturated, some were still fresh and neatly folded. She was
carefully cleansing and wiping the white forehead of the lifeless man
of the last red drop.

"Oh, Alice, what is this?" cried her mother.

"He is dead!" she answered, in a hoarse, strained voice. "I feared so
when I first came in. He was lying on his face. I lifted him up, but he
could not see me. I kissed him, hoping he might kiss me again. But he
did not. Then I saw this water on the stand over there. I remembered
there were always towels there in the billiard-room. I ran and got
them, and washed the blood away from his face. See, his face is not
hurt. I am glad of that. But there is a dreadful wound in his head."
She dropped her voice to a choking whisper at these words.

Her mother gazed at her with speechless consternation. Had the shock
deprived her of reason?

"Alice," she said, "this is no place for you. I will call the servants
and send for a surgeon, and you must go home."

"Oh, no, mamma. I see I have frightened you, but there is no need to be
frightened. Yes, call the servants, but do not let them come in here
for awhile, not till the doctors come. They can do no good. He is
dead."

Mrs. Belding had risen and rung the bell violently.

"Do, mamma, see the servants in the hall outside. Don't let them come
in for a moment. Do! I pray! I pray! I will do anything for you."

There was such intensity of passion in the girl's prayer that her
mother yielded, and when the servants came running in, half-dressed, in
answer to the bell, she stepped outside the door and said, "Captain
Farnham has been badly hurt. Two of y