Mabel, chancing in the evolutions of the set to be nearest the
window, and noting the direction of the fainting woman's eyes, was
quick enough to see a shadow flit across the yellcw square of light
upon the snowy floor of the portico--a man's shape, as it appeared
to her, crouching and slinking out of view into the darkness.

"She saw something, or somebody, through the window, and was
frightened," she said, in a low voice, checking Tom Barksdale and
another gentleman, who would have pressed with the inconsiderate
crowd toward the senseless figure Mr. Aylett had laid upon the sofa.
"Will you see what it was?"

The request cleared the room directly of all the men of the
assembly, with the exception of Winston and Dr. Ritchie, a young
physician, who was superintending the administration of restoratives
to Mrs. Aylett.

She was reviving rapidly when the search party gave in their report.
There were fresh tracks upon the piazza, and these they had traced
to the back of the house, losing them there in the drifting snow,
the wind blowing like a hurricane, and ploughing what had fallen and
what was descending into constantly changing heaps. But the
watch-dogs had been unchained, and four of the negro men detailed as
sentinels, the gentlemen engaging to make the round of the premises
again before bed-time.

The effect of this communication was the reverse of tranquillizing
upon the patient. The wild, terrified look in her eye resembled the
unreasoning fear of lunacy as she seized her husband's arm.