was to make or mar her young life.
And what she heard after he forced her into the coach only added to the
terror which had grown into her heart against him, and when she made
that flying leap from the coach, her one cry to Heaven was that she
might escape the man whom she had but so lately madly adored, but whom
she now so thoroughly abhorred.

CHAPTER V.

"CAN YOU PERFORM THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY AT ONCE, REVEREND SIR?"

It was the hour of eleven by the village clock. Eleven sounded from the
old clock on the mantel. The fire burned low in the grate of Rev. Dr.
Warner's study. The air was growing chill in the room. Still, the old
pastor, who had looked after the village flock for nearly half a
century, heeded neither the time nor the chill, he was so intent upon
the sermon he was writing for the morrow.

He had scarcely concluded the last line ere he heard a well-known tap
upon the door.

He smiled as he arose from his chair, crossed the room and flung open
the door.

He knew well whom he should find standing there, old Adam, the village
sexton and grave digger, who always stopped when he saw a light in the
study window.

"Come in, Adam," said the reverend gentleman; "come up to the fire and
warm yourself; it's a wild night to be about. Has any one sent you here
for me?"

"No, parson," replied Adam, hobbling in. "There's no call for you to be
out on this terrible night, thank Heaven. It's quite by chance that I
left my own fireside myself. I had an errand at the other end of the
village. The weather caught me returning--a regular blizzard--and I have
been floundering about in the drifting snow for hours. I thought I had
lost my way until I saw the light in the window, and--"

But the rest of the sentence was never finished, for at that moment both
men heard distinctly the sound of carriage wheels without, accompanied
by the loud neighing of horses.

Before they could express their wonderment there was a loud peal at the
front door bell.

The reverend gentleman answered the summons in person.

Before him stood three persons, two men and a woman, a slender figure
wearing a long dark cloak, and whose face was covered by a thick veil.

Both men had their coat collars turned up and their hats pulled low over
their faces to protect them from the stinging cold.

"You are the Rev. Dr. Warner?" queried one of the gentlemen. The
minister bowed in the affirmative, hurriedly bidding his guests to
enter.