ey-hole, but there was not a sound within the
bride's room--all was still as the grave.

The handsome bridegroom grew pale and alarmed, crying out to his best
man, who stood by his side:

"Surely something has happened, for I have heard not a sound from the
room. We must force the door."

They put their shoulders against it; the lock yielded, it flew open, and
they stood within the room.

The curtains and the shutters were closely drawn, and the night-lamp
flickered dimly behind a screen. At one end of the room several chairs
were littered with the wedding finery--the tiny white silken hose and
slippers, the satin gown, the misty thread-lace veil.

In the midst of it all, Mrs. Chase lay on the bed, sleeping heavily, but
Dainty was nowhere to be seen.

Love stood looking about him, pale and alarmed, but it was Harry Chilton
who first caught sight of a note pinned on the pillow, and drew Love's
attention to it.

"She is gone. Perhaps that may explain," he said.

Love caught up the note from the pillow, and read with staring eyes:

"DEAR MR. ELLSWORTH,--I have deceived you, and I can
not keep the farce up any longer. I never loved you,
never; but mamma always told me to get a rich husband
if I could, and I was going to marry you for your
money, knowing I would be a wretched wife, because all
my heart was given to another.

"But last evening I met my lover in the grounds, and he
persuaded me to go away with him. When this reaches
you, I shall be his happy bride. We will be poor, but
we shall have love to cheer us. Forgive me, and don't
let the wedding be spoiled. Marry Olive or Ela.

"DAINTY."

Once in a lifetime a man may excusably swoon. Lovelace Ellsworth fell
heavily to the floor like an insensate log.

CHAPTER XIX.

A MADMAN'S DEED.

When he came back to life presently, with a strangling gasp of pain, he
met the anxious gaze of Doctor Platt, who was kneeling beside him.

"Good! You are better! Let me help you to rise," said the old man,
aiding him to a sofa. Taking a chair by him, he continued: "You have
been unconscious for ten minutes, and we have read your letter from Miss
Chase, which I believe to be a cussed forgery!"

"You are right," declared Love, sitting upright, deathly pale and
trembling; while he added, sternly: "Dainty never went away of her own
free will. It is a case of kidnaping!"

"Yes; for there lies her poor