"I forbid the marriage!" exclaimed Miriam. "Clergyman, on your peril you
unite those two!"

"The woman is mad!" cried Carl Walraven, white with rage. "Men, turn her
out!"

"Stop!" said Mollie--"stop one moment I know this woman, and will see
what she means."

No one interfered; every one gazed in breathless interest as Miss Dane
quitted her post and confronted the haggard apparition. The woman
uttered a cry at sight of her, and caught her impetuously by the arm.

"Mad girl! have you forgotten what I told you? Would you marry that
man?"

"Marry what man? What do you mean? I am not going to marry any man
to-day. It is you who have gone mad, I think."

"Why, then, do you wear those bridal robes?"

"Bride-maid robes, if you please. Gracious me, Miriam, you didn't think
I was going to marry Mr. Walraven, did you?"

Miriam passed her hand over her brow with a bewildered air.

"Whom, then, is it, if not you?"

"Miss Blanche Oleander, of course, as anyone could have told you, if
you had taken the trouble to ask before rushing in here and making a