bowed; and the good aunt, with an inherent
love of propriety, went on to add that the acquaintance was of an old
date, and the attachment by no means a sudden thing; that the consent
to this sudden union of Sarah and Wellmere, and especially at a time
when the life of a member of the family was in imminent jeopardy,[93]
was given from a conviction that the unsettled state of the country
would probably prevent another opportunity to the lovers of meeting,
and a secret dread on the part of Mr. Wharton that the death of his
son might, by hastening his own, leave his remaining children without
a protector.

[Footnote 93: risk or danger.]

Miss Peyton now led them to the room where Lawton had left Sarah and
Colonel Wellmere, and awaited the nuptials.

Wellmere, offering Sarah his hand, led her before the divine, and the
ceremony began. The first words of this imposing office produced a
dead stillness in the apartment; and the minister of God was about to
proceed when a figure, gliding into the midst of the party, at once
put a stop to the ceremony. It was the peddler. His look was bitter
and ironical,[94] while a finger raised towards the divine seemed to
forbid the ceremony to go any further.

[Footnote 94: expressing one thing and meaning another.]

"Can Colonel Wellmere waste the precious moments here, when his wife
has crossed the ocean to meet him? The nights are long, and the moon
bright; a few hours will take him to the city."

Aghast at the suddenness of his extraordinary address, Wellmere for a
moment lost the command of his faculties. To Sarah, the countenance
of Birch, expressive as it was, produced no terror; but the instant
she recovered from the surprise of his interruption, she turned her
anxious gaze on the features of the man to whom she had pledged her
troth. They afforded the most terrible confirmation of all that the
peddler affirmed; the room whirled round, and she fell lifeless into
the arms of her aunt.

The confusion enabled the peddler to retreat with a rapidity that
would baffle pursuit, had any been attempted, and Wellmere stood with
every eye fixed on him, in ominous silence.

"'Tis false--'tis false as hell!" he cried, striking his forehead. "I
have ever denied her claim; nor will the laws of my country compel me
to acknowledge it."

"But what will conscience and the laws of God do?" asked Lawton.

"'Tis well, sir," said Wellmere, haughtily, and retreating towards the
door,