"I hope my darling rested well. Heaven has made the day beautiful because it is our marriage morn."
It was an odd notion of Gerelda's to steal away from their elegant city mansion and her dear five hundred friends, to have the ceremony performed quietly up at the Thousand Islands, with only a select few to witness it.
Great preparations had been made in the hotel for the approaching marriage. The spacious private parlors to be used were perfect fairy bowers of roses and green leaves.
Up to this very morning Miss Northrup's imported wedding-gown had not arrived. Mrs. Northrup and Hubert Varrick were wild with anxiety and impatience over the affair. Gerelda alone took the matter calmly.
"It will be here some time to-day," she averred. "The wedding will be delayed but a few hours, after all, and I don't know but that I prefer an evening wedding to a morning one, anyhow."
It was almost dark ere the long-looked-for bridal trousseau arrived. Varrick drew a great breath of relief.
He welcomed the shadows of night with the greatest joy. He never afterward remembered how he lived until the hour of eight rolled round.
He had not long to wait in the little anteroom where she was to join him. The few invited guests who were so fortunate as to receive invitations were all present.
A low murmur of admiration ran around that little group as the heavy silken portières that separated the anteroom from the reception parlor were drawn aside, and Hubert Varrick entered with the beautiful heiress leaning on his arm.
In her gloved right hand she carried a prayer-book of pearl and gold. A messenger had brought it, handing it to her just as she was about to enter the anteroom.
"It is from an unknown friend," whispered the boy, so low that even Varrick did not catch the words. "A simple wish accompanies it," the boy went on, "and that is, when the ceremony is but just begun, you will raise the little book to your lips for the sake of the unknown friend who sends it to you."
Gerelda smiled and promised, thoughtlessly enough, that she would comply.
"Are you ready, my darling?" said Hubert.
His thoughts were so confused at the time, that he had paid little heed to the messenger or noticed what he had brought to Gerelda, or what their conversation was about, or that the boy fled like a dark-winged shadow down the corridor after he had executed his errand.
She took her place by his side. Ah! how proud he was of her superb beauty, of her queenly carriage, and her haughty demeanor! Surely she was a bride worth winning – a queen among girls!
Slowly and solemnly the marriage ceremony began. Varrick answered promptly and clearly the questions put to him. Then the minister turned to the slender, staturesque figure by his side.
"Will you take this man to be your lawful, wedded husband, to love, honor, and obey him till death do you part?" he asked.
At that moment all assembled thought they heard a low, muffled whistle.
Before making answer, Gerelda raised the beautiful pearl and gold prayer-book and kissed it.
She tried to speak the words: "I will;" but all in an instant her lips grew stiff and refused to utter them.
No sound save a low gasp broke the terrible stillness.
She had kissed the little prayer-book as she had so laughingly and thoughtlessly promised to do, ere she uttered the words that would make her Hubert Varrick's wife. And what had happened to her? She was gasping for breath – dying!
The little book fell unheeded at her feet, and her head drooped backward.
With a great cry, Hubert Varrick caught her.
"It is only a momentary dizziness," said Varrick, half leading, half carrying her into the anteroom and up to the window, and throwing open the sash.
"Rest here, my darling, while I fetch you a glass of water," he said, as he placed her in a chair and rushed from the room.
The event just narrated had happened so suddenly that Mrs. Northrup and those in the outer apartment were for the time being fairly dazed, unable to move or stir.
And by the time they had recovered their senses Hubert had reappeared with a glass of water in his hand.
Mrs. Northrup was too excited to leave her seat; but the rest followed quickly on Hubert's heels to the anteroom.
One instant more and a wild, hoarse cry in Varrick's voice echoed through the place.
The room was empty! Where was Gerelda? There was no means of exit from that room save the door by which he had entered. Perhaps she had leaned from the window and fallen out. He rushed quickly to it and glanced down, with a wild prayer to Heaven to give him strength to bear what he might see lying on the ground below. But instead of a white, upturned face, and a shimmering heap of satin and lace, he beheld a ladder, which was placed close against the window; and half-way down upon it, caught firmly upon one of the rounds, he beheld a torn fragment of lace, which he instantly recognized as part of Gerelda's wedding veil.
He could neither move nor speak. The sight held him spell-bound. By this time Mrs. Northrup reached his side.
"Oh! I might have known it, I might have guessed it!" she wildly cried, clutching at Varrick's arm. "She must have eloped with – with Captain Frazier," she whispered.
"Hush!" cried Varrick. "I know it, I believe it, but no one must know. I see it all. She repented of marrying me at the eleventh hour, and ere it was too late she fled with the lover who must have awaited her, in an agony of suspense, outside."
All the guests had gathered about them.
"Where is Miss Gerelda?" they all cried in a breath.
"She must have fallen from the window," they echoed; and immediately there was a stampede out toward the grounds.
In the excitement of the moment no one noticed that Hubert Varrick and Mrs. Northrup were left behind.
"Help me to bear this dreadful burden, Hubert!" she sobbed, hoarsely. "I think I am going mad. I thank God that Gerelda's father did not live to see this hour!"
Great as her grief was, the anguish on the face which Hubert Varrick raised to hers was pitiful to behold.
She was terrified. She saw that he needed comfort quite as much as herself.
The minister, who had entered the room unobserved, had heard all. He quitted the apartment as quickly as he had entered it, and hurried through the corridor to his friend Doctor Roberts.
"The greatest blessing you could do, doctor, would be to come to him quickly, and give him a potion that will make him dead to his trouble for a little while."
Chapter III.
"WHEN THOSE WE LOVE DRIFT AWAY FROM US THEY ARE NEVER THE SAME AGAIN – THEY NEVER COME BACK."
"Only a heart that's broken,
That is, if hearts can break;
Only a man adrift for life,
All for a woman's sake.
Your love was a jest – I now see it —
Now, though it's rather late;
Yes, too late to turn my life
And seek another fate."
Although search was instantly instituted for the missing bride-elect, not the slightest trace of her could be discovered.
Was she Hubert Varrick's bride or not? There was great diversity of opinion about that. Many contended that she was not, because the words from the minister: "Now I pronounce you man and wife," had not yet been uttered.
No wonder the beauty had found it difficult to choose between handsome Hubert Varrick and the dashing captain.
Varrick was a millionaire, and Captain Frazier could easily write out his check for an equal amount.
The