chamber and pondered upon the ways
of the great world. Out there in the moonlight were those two who
to-morrow would be one, and here was she, alone. The world seemed all
circling about that white chamber of hers, and echoing with her own
consciousness of self, and a loneliness she had never felt before. She
wondered what it might be. Was it all sadness at parting with Kate, or was
it the sadness over inevitable partings of all human relationships, and
the all-aloneness of every living spirit?

She stood for a moment, white-robed, beside her window, looking up into
the full round moon, and wondering if God knew the ache of loneliness in
His little human creatures' souls that He had made, and whether He had
ready something wherewith to satisfy. Then her meek soul bowed before the
faith that was in her and she knelt for her shy but reverent evening
prayer.

She heard the two lovers come in early and go upstairs, and she heard her
father fastening up the doors and windows for the night. Then stillness
gradually settled down and she fell asleep. Later, in her dreams, there
echoed the sound of hastening hoofs far down the deserted street and over
the old covered bridge, but she took no note of any sound, and the weary
household slept on.

CHAPTER IV

The wedding was set for ten o'clock in the morning, after which there was
to be a wedding breakfast and the married couple were to start immediately
for their new home.

David had driven the day before with his own horse and chaise to a town
some twenty miles away, and there left his horse at a tavern to rest for
the return trip, for Kate would have it that they must leave the house in
high style. So the finest equipage the town afforded had been secured to
bear them on the first stage of their journey, with a portly negro driver
and everything according to the custom of the greatest of the land.
Nothing that Kate desired about the arrangements had been left undone.

The household was fully astir by half past four, for the family breakfast
was to be at six promptly, that all might be cleared away and in readiness
for the early arrival of the various aunts and uncles and cousins and
friends who would "drive over" from the country round about. It would have
been something Madam Schuyler would never have been able to get over if
aught had been awry when a single uncle or aunt appeared upon the scene,
or if there seemed to be the least