ee took
leave of the governor-elect and his bride, who entered their temporary
home alone, to be received and attended by obsequious servants.

There we also will leave them.

Visitors to the inauguration were arriving by every train.

Among the arrivals from the East came Aaron Rockharrt, with his wife,
his two sons, Fabian and Clarence, and his grandson, Sylvan, the
younger brother of Cora.

The main door of the mansion was open, and several gentlemen, wearing
official badges, stood without or just within it.

"By Jove! we are just in time, and it has been a close shave! That is
the committee come to take him to the State house!" exclaimed old Aaron
Rockharrt as he stepped out of the carriage, and helped his feeble
little wife to alight. He led her up the steps, followed by the other
three men of his party.

"Good morning, Judge Abbot. We are just in time, I find. We came up by
the night train, and a close shave it has been. Well, a miss is as good
as a mile, and we are safe to see the whole of the pageant," said the
old man, speaking to a tall, thin, gray-haired gentleman, who wore a
rosette on the lapel of his coat.

"Yes, sir; but here is a very strange difficulty--very strange, indeed,"
replied the official, with a deeply troubled and perplexed air, which
was shared by all the gentlemen who stood with him.

"What's the trouble, gentlemen? Is the chief justice ill, that his honor
cannot administer the oath, or what?"

"It is much worse than that--if anything could be worse," gravely
replied one of the committee.

"What is it then? A contested election at this late hour?"

"The governor-elect cannot be found. No one has seen him since eleven
o'clock last night. He is missing."

CHAPTER II.

A LOST GOVERNOR AND BRIDEGROOM.

"Missing!" echoed old Aaron Rockharrt, drawing up his huge frame to its
fullest height, and staring with strong black eyes in a defiant and
aggressive manner. "Missing! did you say, sir?" he repeated sternly.

"Yes, Mr. Rockharrt; ever since last night," replied Judge Abbot,
chairman of the committee, in much distress and anxiety.

"Impossible! Never heard of such a thing in the whole course of my life!
A bridegroom lost on the evening of his marriage! A governor lost on the
morning of his inauguration! I tell you, sir, it is impossible--utterly
and entirely impossible! How do you know, sir, that he has not been seen
by some one or other since last night? How do you kno