She shook her head.

"Mrs. Weldon knows. I do not."

Alexandrine spoke.

"White camelias. I heard Mrs. Weldon ask him to fetch them."

Mr. Trevlyn started up.

"I will have out the whole household, at once, and search, the whole
estate! For I feel as if some terrible crime may have been done upon our
very threshold. Margie, dear, take heart, he may be alive and well!"

He went out to alarm the already excited guests, and in half an hour the
place was alive with lanterns, carried by those who sought for the
missing bridegroom.

Pale and silent, the women gathered themselves together in the chamber of
the bride, and waited. Margie sat among them in her white robes, mute and
motionless as a statue.

"It must be terrible to fall by the hand of an assassin!" said Mrs.
Weldon, with a shudder. "Good heavens! what a dreadful thing it would be
if Mr. Linmere has been murdered!"

"An assassin! My God!" cried Margie, a terrible thought stealing across
her mind. Who had touched her in the cypress grove? What hand had woke in
her a thrill that changed her from ice to fire! What if it were the hand
of her betrothed husband's murderer?