"Hark! what a shriek was that of fear intense,;
Of horror and amazement!;
What fearful struggle to the door and thence;
With mazy doubles to the grated casement!"
An hour after the departure of Capitola, Colonel Le Noir returned to the Hidden House and learned from his man David that upon the preceding evening a young girl of whose name he was ignorant had sought shelter from the storm and passed the night at the mansion.
Now, Colonel Le Noir was extremely jealous of receiving strangers under his roof, never, during his short stay at the Hidden House, going out into company, lest he should be obliged in return to entertain visitors. And when he learned that a strange girl had spent the night beneath his roof, he frowningly directed that Dorcas should be sent to him.
When his morose manager made her appearance he harshly demanded the name of the young woman she had dared to receive beneath his roof.
Now, whether there is any truth in the theory of magnetism or not, it is certain that Dorcas Knight—stern, harsh, resolute woman that she was toward all others—became as submissive as a child in the presence of Colonel Le Noir.
At his command she gave him all the information he required, not even withholding the fact of Capitola's strange story of having seen the apparition of the pale-faced lady in her chamber, together with the subsequent discovery of the loss of her ring.
Colonel Le Noir sternly reprimanded his domestic manager for her neglect of his orders and dismissed her from his presence.