The oppression of the thing under which Jean and the girl were fighting had become more acute with the turning of their faces homeward.

At Adare House lay the cause of their hopelessness, of Josephine's grief, and of the gloom under which the half-breed had fallen so completely that night.

Until they reached Adare House he could guess at nothing.

And there--what would he find?
In spite of himself he felt creeping slowly over him a shuddering fear that he had not acknowledged before.

The darkness deepening as the fire died away, the stillness of the night, the low wailing of a wind growing out of the north roused in him the unrest and doubt that sunshine and day had dispelled.