o 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 mom