e grave clergyman notices the bride's heroic efforts to restrain her
agitation, and the ceremony proceeds. At length the solemn sentence is
uttered which proclaims the masked couple man and wife.

Then there is a great surprise for the spectators.

As they behold the bride and groom, now unmasked, there is a stare of
wonder in every face, and expressions of intense amazement are heard
on all sides.

Then it dawns upon the witnesses that the principal actors in the play
are not the persons first chosen to represent the parts of the bride
and groom.

Why was a change made? What means the unannounced substitution of
other actors in the exciting play?

Ask the woman who caused the change--the woman who, with pallid cheek
and glittering eye, had intently watched every movement of the
apparently reluctant bride, evidently fearing the failure of the play
upon which she had set her heart.

It became painfully evident that the play was not ended yet, and some
there present had reason to believe that it was likely to end in a
tragedy.

Now let us portray the events which preceded the masked bridal.

CHAPTER I.

TWO UNEXPECTED VISITORS.

It was a cold, raw night in December, and the streets of New York
city, despite their myriads of electric lights and gayly illuminated
shop windows, were dismal and forlorn beyond description.

The sky was leaden. A piercing wind was blowing up from the East
River, and great flakes of snow were beginning to fall, when, out of
the darkness of a side street, there came the slight, graceful figure
of a young girl, who, crossing Broadway, glided into the glare of the
great arclight that was stationed directly opposite a pawnbroker's
shop.

She halted a moment just outside the door, one slender,
shabbily-gloved hand resting irresolutely upon its polished knob,
while an expression of mingled pain and disgust swept over her pale
but singularly beautiful face.

Presently, however, she straightened herself, and throwing up her head
with an air of resolution, she turned the knob, pushed open the door,
and entered the shop.

It was a large establishment of its kind, and upon every hand there
were indications that that relentless master, Poverty, had been very
busy about his work in the homes of the unfortunate, compelling his
victims to sacrifice their dearest possessions to his avaricious
grasp.

The young girl walked swiftly to the counter, behind which there stood
a shrewd-fa