he young man, piteously. "Do
not leave me so suddenly. Give me time to think. Oh, I can not part
with you! I must--must have you at any cost!" he muttered to himself.

She stopped and contemplated him as with scornful pity.

"Come--come into the square here and sit down. Let us talk this matter
over. Pray do! Oh, I can not lose you so!" he pleaded, seizing her hand.

"Well, I will go in and sit on one of those benches for a few moments,
and give you the opportunity of recovering your place in my confidence,"
she said, with a sort of contemptuous pity, as she turned and entered
the square.

He followed her immediately, and they sat down together.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

A WICKED WEDDING.

Bid me to leap
From off the battlements of yonder tower
And I will do it.
--SHAKESPEARE.

"Now tell me what you wish me to do, and why you wish me to do it," said
the lover, submissively.

"I have already told you _what_ I wish you to do. _Why_ I wish you to do
it must remain my secret for the present. You must trust me. Oh,
Craven," she added, suddenly changing her tone to one of soft, sorrowful
pleading, "why will you not trust me, when I am about to trust you with
the happiness of my whole future life?"

"I do trust you! I trust you, as I love you, without limit!" answered
the poor fellow, almost weeping.

"Ah, you _say_ you do, yet you refuse to do as I wish you," sorrowfully
replied the siren.

"I refuse no longer! I will do anything in the world you wish me to do
with joy, if in that way I can have you for my own," he declared, with
tearful emphasis.

"I knew you would. You are a dear, good, true heart, and I love you more
than life!" she said, giving his arm a squeeze. "Listen, now."

He became suddenly all devoted attention, as she artfully unfolded to
him just as much of her nefarious plan as was absolutely necessary to
secure his co-operation in it. The whole of her scheme in all its
diabolical wickedness she dared not expose to his honest soul.

She told him now that she had set her mind on a harmless practical joke,
to win a wager with Emma Cavendish.

She said that he must so with her to see the Rev. Mr. Borden, rector of
St. ---- Church, and ask him to perform the marriage ceremony between
them, and that he must give his own name as Mr. Alden Lytton, attorney
at law, Richmond, Virginia, and give her name as it was--Mrs. Mary Grey,
of the