He looked at her with ferocity, grappled a moment in his pocket; then ran to the window, and throwing the sash violently up, thrust himself as far as he could without falling, into the open air.

Terrified, and yet her feelings of his unkindness predominating even above her fears, Clara continued to exclaim.
"Oh, brother, say you did not mean this!--Oh, say you did not mean to strike me!--Oh, whatever I have deserved, be not you the executioner!--It is not manly--it is not natural--there are but two of us in the world!" He returned no answer; and, observing that he continued to stretch himself from the window, which was in the second story of the building, and overlooked the court, a new cause of apprehension mingled, in some measure, with her personal fears.

Timidly, and with streaming eyes and uplifted hands, she approached her angry brother, and, fearfully, yet firmly, seized the skirt of his coat, as if anxious to preserve him from the effects of that despair, which so lately seemed turned against her, and now against himself.
He felt the pressure of her hold, and drawing himself angrily back, asked her sternly what she wanted.
"Nothing," she said, quitting her hold of his coat; "but what--what did he look after so anxiously ?" "After the devil!" he answered, fiercely; then drawing in his head, and taking her hand, "By my soul, Clara--it is true, if ever there was truth in such a tale!--He stood by me just now, and urged me to murder thee!--What else could have put my hunting-knife into my thought ?--Ay, by God, and into my very hand--at such a moment ?--Yonder I could almost fancy I see him fly, the wood, and the rock, and the water, gleaming back the dark-red furnace-light, that is shed on them by his dragon wings! By my soul, I can hardly suppose it fancy--I can hardly think but that I was under the influence of an evil spirit--under an act of fiendish possession! But gone as he is, gone let him be--and thou, too ready implement of evil, be thou gone after him!" He drew from his pocket his right hand, which had all this time held his hunting-knife, and threw the implement into the court-yard as he spoke, then, with a sad quietness, and solemnity of manner, shut the window, and led his sister by the hand to her usual seat, which her tottering steps scarce enabled her to reach.

"Clara," he said, after a pause of mournful silence, "we must think what is to be done, without passion or violence--there may be something for us in the dice yet, if we do not throw away our game.

A blot is never a blot till it is hit--dishonour concealed, is not dishonour in some respects .-- Dost thou attend to me, wretched girl ?" he said, suddenly and sternly raising his voice.
"Yes, brother--yes, indeed, brother!" she hastily replied, terrified even by delay again to awaken his ferocious and ungovernable temper.
"Thus it must be, then," he said.