as she sat up in the dark before those dancing shadows on the wall, an idea seized her. If he were her father who would have spoken to Barney Loutrelle, she could not yet guess what her father would have said; but she felt sure that his purpose was to send this new friend here to help her.
She heard a soft tap, tap, tap at her door; and she went over and opened it to find no one in the darkened hall. This gave her a start till she felt something warm and soft moving at her feet,—the collies, Lad and Lass, who had been out with Kincheloe when she arrived. She stooped, patting the sleek bodies which rubbed affectionately against her legs; and the return of the dogs, wet from the snow melting in their long hair, turned Ethel's thought to Miss Platt's husband.
He had always affected the manners of a gallant and always before had made it a particular point to be on hand to greet Ethel when she arrived at St. Florentin. She had been too excited to attribute any significance to his absence this time; but now the fact stirred disquiet. She did not exactly define it to herself; but so far as she considered, it was something like this. Her grandfather had been alarmed by an occurrence this day which was connected with the arrival of Barney Loutrelle and his going to Resurrection Rock; in some way that seemed to threaten her grandfather so that he was likely to make a move against Barney Loutrelle. As her grandfather was here in the house, Ethel had thought of that move as only in preparation; she had forgotten about Kincheloe who had not been in the house but—rather unexpectedly—had been outdoors.
As he had taken the dogs with him, he probably had been on the lake, for the dogs would not have been able
