ime had filled my ears
with hubbub. But the bride had not gone. She was at that moment coming
down the stairs, and it was this fact which had pierced to my inner
consciousness, and aroused once more in me a vivid sense of my
surroundings. He was with her, and behind them, gliding like a wraith
from landing to landing, came Marah, clad like the bride in a traveling
dress, but without the bonnet which betokened an instant departure.

"Not anticipating her presence so near, I felt my courage fail, and
pushing forward, joined the group of servants at the door. They, seeing
in this departure of their mistress a possibly endless separation, were
weeping and uttering exclamations that not only showed their devotion,
but their fears. Shocked lest these words should reach her ears, I
quieted them; and then seeing that the carriage which stood outside had
a stranger for a driver, and that there was no accompanying wagon filled
with their body servants and baggage, I asked the friendly Caesar, who
had pressed close to my side, if Mrs. Urquhart was not going to take a
maid with her.

"The negro at once growled out an injured 'No!' and when I expressed my
astonishment, he explained that 'There was no one here good enough to
please Massa Urquhart. That he was going to pick up with some one in New
York. That, though missus was sick, he would not even let her have her
own gal go wid her as far as the city; said he would do everything for
her hisself--as if any man could do for missus like her own Sally, who
had been wid her ever since 'fore she was born!'

"'And the baggage?' I asked, troubled more than I can say by what
certainly augured anything but favorably for her future.

"'Oh, massa send dat round to his house. He got books, an' a lot o'
things to add to it. Dere's enough o' dat; an' den more went down de
ribber on a sloop a week an' more ago.'

"'So! so! And they are going to ride?'

"'Yes, sah. You see, dey want to catch de ship w'at set sail for
Bermudas, an' got to hurry; so massa says.'

"By this time Urquhart and his bride had reached the door. He was still
gay and she was still quiet. But in her eye glistened a tear, while in
his there gleamed nothing softer than that vague spark of triumph which
one might expect to see in a man who had just married the richest
heiress in Albany.

"'Good-by! good-by! good-by!' came in soft tones from her lips; and she
was just stepping over the threshold, when there suddenly appe