THE UNSEEN BRIDEGROOM;

OR,

WEDDED FOR A WEEK

BY MAY AGNES FLEMING




CHAPTER I.

THE WALRAVEN BALL.


A dark November afternoon--wet, and windy, and wild. The New York
streets were at their worst--sloppy, slippery, and sodden; the sky
lowering over those murky streets one uniform pall of inky gloom. A bad,
desolate, blood-chilling November afternoon.

And yet Mrs. Walraven's ball was to come off to-night, and it was rather
hard upon Mrs. Walraven that the elements should make a dead set at her
after this fashion.

The ball was to be one of the most brilliant affairs of the season, and
all Fifth Avenue was to be there in its glory.

Fifth Avenue was above caring for anything so commonplace as the
weather, of course; but still it would have been pleasanter, and only