arning look from Lucetta stopped him.

"I mean," he stammered, "it's a dull dog that cannot find his master.
Miss Butterworth, you will have to overcome your fear of dogs if you
stay with us long. Saracen is unbound this morning, and"--he used a
great oath--"he's going to remain so."

By which I came to understand that it was not out of consideration for
me he had been tied up in the court till now, but for reasons connected
with their own safety and the preservation of the secret which they so
evidently believed had been buried with the body, which I did not like
to remember lay at that very minute too nearly under our feet for my own
individual comfort.

However, this has nothing to do with the reply I made to William.

"I hope he does not run with the buggy," I objected. "I want to take a
ride very much this morning and could get small pleasure out of it if
that dog must be our companion."

"I cannot go out this morning," William began, but changed his sentence,
possibly at the touch of his sister's foot under the table, into: "But
if you say I must, why, I must. You women folks are so plagued
unreasonable."

Had he been ten years younger I would have boxed his ears; had he been
that much older I would have taken cue and packed my trunk before he
could have finished the cup of coffee he was drinking. But he was just
too old to reprimand in the way just mentioned, and not old enough to
appreciate any display of personal dignity or self-respect on the part
of the person he had offended. Besides, he was a knave; so I just let
his impertinence pass with the remark:

"I have purchases to make in the village": and so that matter ended,
manifestly to the two girls' relief, who naturally did not like to see
me insulted, even if they did not possess sufficient power over their
brother to prevent it.

One other small episode and then I will take you with me to the village.
As we were leaving the table, where I ate less than common,
notwithstanding all my efforts to seem perfectly unconcerned, Lucetta,
who had waited for her brother to go out, took me gently by the arm,
and, eying me closely, said:

"Did you have any dreams last night, Miss Butterworth? You know I
promised you some."

The question disconcerted me, and for a moment I felt like taking the
two girls into my confidence and bidding them fly from the shame and
doom so soon to fall upon their brother; but the real principle
underlying all such momentary i