r feeling under an incessant, merry chatter about
dresses and jellies. Don't you agree with me, William?"

The sick man turned on the sofa with a laugh, which looked ghastly
enough on his haggard face. "I submit, Aunt Sophie, that it is hardly
fair to call me in as a witness in this case. I waited on Lou for two or
three years, Mr. Floyd, and she threw me over for Merrick. It is not
likely that I was an unprejudiced observer of her moods just then."

"Nonsense, William. I knew that was but the idlest flirtation between
you, or I should not have brought you here now," said his aunt. "Well,
Mr. Floyd, the preparations all were completed on the afternoon before
the wedding. Some of the young people had gathered in the library--Paul
Merrick and his sisters and--you were there, William?"

"Yes, I was there."

"And they persuaded Lou to put on her wedding dress and veil to give
them a glimpse of the bride. I think it was Paul who wished it. He was a
hot, eager young fellow, and he was impatient to taste his happiness by
anticipation. It was a dull, gusty afternoon in October. I remember the
contrast she made to the gray, cold day as she came in, shy and
blushing, and her eyes sparkling, in her haze of white, and stood in
front of the window. She was so lovely and pure that we were all silent.
It seemed as if she belonged then to her lover alone, and none of us had
a right to utter a word. He went up to her, but no one heard what he
said, and then took her by the hand and led her reverently to the door.
Presently I met her coming out of her chamber in a cloak and hat. Her
maid Abby was inside, folding the white dress and veil. 'I am going down
to Aunty Huldah's,' Lou said to me. 'I promised her to come again before
I was married and tell her the arrangements all over once more.' Huldah
was an old colored woman, Lou's nurse, who lived down on the creek bank
and had long been bedridden. I remember that I said to Louisa that the
walk would be long and lonely, and told her to call Paul to accompany
her. She hesitated a moment, and then turned to the door, saying Huldah
would probably be in one of her most funereal moods, and that she would
not have Paul troubled on the eve of his wedding day. She started,
running and looking back with a laugh, down the hill." Mrs. Beardsley
faltered and stopped.

"Go on," said Dr. Scheffer. "The incidents which follow are all that
really affect Louisa's guilt or innocence."

"Go on, mother,"