at dominating will of yours. If she chooses to
hold her own she will hold it, and neither you nor the Colonel can
ever say her nay.

What did Orrin tell me? That she would never be mistress of that
house? Orrin was right, she never will; but who could have thought of
a tragedy like this? Not I, not I; and if Orrin did and planned it--
But let me tell the whole just as it happened, keeping down my horror
till the last word is written and I have plainly before me the awful
occurrences of this fearful day.

They went, the three, to that fatal house together, and no man, saving
myself perhaps, thought much more about the matter till we began to
see Juliet's father peering anxiously from over his gate in the
direction of the wood. Then we realized that the afternoon had long
passed and that it was getting dark; and going up to the old man, I
asked whom he was looking for. The answer was as we expected.

"I am looking for Juliet. The Colonel took her and Orrin up to their
new house, but they do not come back. I had a dreadful dream last
night, and it frightens me. Why don't they come? It must be dark
enough in the wood."

"They will come soon," I assured him, and moved off, for I do not like
Juliet's father.

But when I passed by there again a half-hour later and found the old
man still standing bare-headed and with craning neck at his post, I
became very uneasy myself, and proposed to two or three neighbors,
whom I found standing about, that we should go toward the woods and
see if all were well. They agreed, being affected, doubtless, like
myself, by the old man's fears, and as we proceeded down the street,
others joined us till we amounted in number to a half-dozen or more.
Yet, though the occasion seemed a strange one, we were not really
alarmed till we found ourselves at the woods and realized how dark
they were and how still. Then I began to feel an oppression at my
heart, and trod with careful and hesitating steps till we came into
the open space in which the house stands. Here it was lighter, but oh!
how still. I shall never forget how still; when suddenly a shrill cry
broke from one amongst us, and I saw Ralph Urphistone pointing with
finger frozen in horror at something which lay in ghastly outline upon
the broad stone which leads up to the gap of the great front door.

What was it? We dared not approach to see, yet we dared not linger
quiescent. One by one we started forward till finally we all stood in
a h