o follow his
example, but Cuthbert stood leaning upon the back of his chair, with
eyes riveted on the play.

The courtship, the clandestine meetings, the interview in which Peleg
intruded upon the lovers, the revelation to the grandmother, were
accurately delineated, and in each scene the girl grew taller, by
some arrangement of the skirts, which were at first very short, while
she appeared in a sitting posture.

When the secret marriage was decided upon, and the party left the
cottage by night, Cuthbert turned, rested one hand on his father's
shoulder, and as the scene changed to the quiet parsonage, he pressed
heavily, and muttered:

"Even the very dress that she wore that day! And--there is the black
agate! On her hand--where I put it! Don't you know it? How she turns
it!"

In the tableau of the marriage ceremony she had taken her position
with reference to the locality of the box, and as near it as
possible, and in the glare of the footlights the ring was clearly
revealed.

Lifting his lorgnette, General Laurance inspected the white hand he
had once kissed so rapturously, and by the aid of the lenses he
recognized the costly ring, the valued heirloom, for the recovery of
which he had offered five hundred dollars. Had he still cherished a
shadowy hope that Cuthbert was suffering from some fearful delusion,
the sight of that singular and fatal ring utterly overthrew the last
lingering vestige of doubt. Stunned, miserable, dimly foreboding some
overwhelming _denouement_, he sat in stony stillness, knowing that
this was but the prelude to some dire catastrophe.

When the telegram, arrived and the young husband took his bride in
his arms, the girlish face was lifted, and the passionate gleam of
the dilating brown eyes sent a strange thrill to the hearts of both
father and son. Vowing to return very soon and claim her, the husband
tore himself away, and as he vanished through a side door near the
box, Minnie followed, stretched out her arms, and looking up full at
its two tenants she breathed her wild passionate prayer which rang
with indescribable pathos through that vast building:

"My husband! My husband--do not forsake me!"

Cuthbert put his hand over his eyes, and but for the voices on the
stage his shuddering groan would have been heard outside the box. In
the scene where Peleg's advances were indignantly repulsed, and his
threats to unleash the bloodhounds of slander, hunting her to infamy,
were fully d