and terrible! When is it to be?"
"The wedding? Next month."
"Poor Walraven! There, Blanche, don't flash up, pray! When you are married you will want to get blue-eyed Mollie off your hands, so please transfer her to me, little flash of lightning that she is! I always did like unbroken colts for the pleasure of taming them."
Mrs. Walraven was told of her son's approaching marriage the day after the dinner-party; disapproved, but said nothing. Mollie disapproved, and said everything.
"It's of no use talking now, Mollie!" her guardian exclaimed, impatiently. "I must and will marry Blanche."
"And, oh! what a pitiable object you will be twelve months after! But I'll never desert you—never strike my flag to the conqueress. 'The boy stood on the burning deck.' I'll be a second Casi—what you may call him? to you. I'll be bride-maid now, and your protector from the lovely Blanche in the future."
She kept her word. In spite of Miss Oleander's dislike, she was first bride-maid when the eventful day arrived.
But fairer than the bride, fairest of the rosy bevy of bride-maids, shone blue-eyed Mollie Dane. A party of speechless admirers stood behind, chief among them Hugh Ingelow.
The bridal party were drawn up before the surpliced clergyman, and "Who giveth this woman?" had been asked and answered, and the service was proceeding in due order when there was a sudden commotion at the door.
Some one rushed impetuously in, and a voice that rang through the lofty edifice shouted:
"Stop! I forbid the marriage!"
Carl Walraven whirled round aghast. The bride shrieked; the bride-maids echoed the bride in every note of the gamut—all save Mollie; and she, like the bridegroom, had recognized the intruder.
For, tall and gaunt as one of Macbeth's witches, there stood the woman Miriam!
CHAPTER IV.
MOLLIE'S CONQUEST.
There was a blank pause; every eye fixed on the towering form of the specter-like woman.
"I forbid the marriage!" exclaimed Miriam. "Clergyman, on your peril you unite those two!"
"The woman is mad!" cried Carl Walraven, white with rage. "Men, turn her out!"
"Stop!" said Mollie—"stop one moment I know this woman, and will see what she means."
No one interfered; every one gazed in breathless interest as Miss Dane quitted her post and confronted the haggard apparition. The woman uttered a cry at sight of her, and caught her impetuously by the arm.
"Mad girl! have you forgotten what I told you? Would you marry that man?"
"Marry what man? What do you mean? I am not going to marry any man to-day. It is you who have gone mad, I think."
"Why, then, do you wear those bridal robes?"
"Bride-maid robes, if you please. Gracious me, Miriam, you didn't think I was going to marry Mr. Walraven, did you?"
Miriam passed her hand over her brow with a bewildered air.
"Whom, then, is it, if not you?"
"Miss Blanche Oleander, of course, as anyone could have told you, if you had taken the trouble to ask before rushing in here and making a scene."
"I only heard last night he was to be married," Miriam said, with a bewildered face, "and took it for granted that it must be you."
"Then you must have had a poorer opinion of my taste than I should have thought it possible for you to have. Come in and beg everybody's pardon, and tell them it was all a shocking mistake."
"One word first: Are you well and happy?"
"Perfectly well, and happy as a queen. Come on; there is no time to lose. People are staring dreadfully, and the bride is glaring with rage. Quick—come!"
She flitted back to her place, and Miriam, stepping forward, addressed the assembly:
"I ask your pardon, ladies and gentlemen. I have made a mistake. I thought the bride was Miss Dane. I beg the ceremony will proceed."
She pulled a veil she wore down over her gaunt face, and with the last word hurried out and disappeared. Mr. Walraven, suppressing his rage, turned to the minister.
"Proceed!" he said, impatiently, "and make haste."
The bride, very white with anger and mortification, resumed her place; the ceremony recommenced. This time there was no interruption, and in ten minutes the twain were one flesh.
Half an hour later they were back at the Walraven mansion to eat the wedding-breakfast, and then the new-made Mrs. Walraven, with an eye that flashed and a voice that rang, turned upon her liege lord and demanded an explanation. Mr. Walraven shrugged his shoulders deprecatingly.
"My dearest Blanche, I have none to give. The woman must be mad. Speak to Mollie."
"Carl Walraven, do not dare to deceive me on my wedding-day. You know more of this than you choose to say."
"Mrs. Walraven, do not raise your angel voice to such a pitch for nothing. I said before, speak to Mollie. I say again, speak to Mollie; and here she is."
"So she is," said Miss Dane, sauntering in. "Do you want me to allay a post-nuptial storm already? Auspicious beginning! What is it?"
"Who was that woman?" demanded the bride.
"A very old friend of mine, madame."
"Why did she come to the church and try to stop the marriage?"
"Because she thought I was the bride. She said so, didn't she? And being very well acquainted with me, she was moved with compassion for the deluded man and came to warn him in time. I explained her little mistake, as you saw, and she apologized handsomely, and—exit, Miriam. Isn't that satisfactory?"
"Are you speaking the truth?"
Miss Dane laid her hand upon her heart, and bowed profoundly.
"Doesn't Mr. Walraven know her?"
"That is a question I can not take it upon myself to answer. Mr. Walraven is of age. Let him speak for himself."
"I told you before," said the bridegroom, angrily. "Let us have no more about it, Blanche, or I may chance to lose my temper."
He turned on his heel and walked off whistling, and the bride, in her snowy robes and laces, went down to breakfast, trying vainly to clear her stormy brow. Mollie puckered up her rosy lips into a shrill whistle.
"And this is their wedding-day! I told him how it would be, but of course nobody ever minds what I say. Poor guardy! what ever would become of him traveling alone with that woman! How thankful he ought to be that he has me to go along and take care of him!"
For Mollie had made it an express stipulation, contrary to all precedent, that she was to accompany the happy pair on their bridal tour. Miss Oleander's ante-nuptial objections had been faint; Mrs. Walraven, less scrupulous, turned upon her husband at the eleventh hour, just previous to starting, and insisted that she should be left at home.
"It will be ridiculous in the extreme," exclaimed the bride, "having your ward traveling with us! Let her remain at home with your mother."
Mr. Walraven looked his bride steadfastly in the eye for a moment, then sat down deliberately.
"Look here, Mrs. Walraven," said Mr.