le to see up to that moment, that her very life and soul were
wrapped up in the man who had stolen away her daughter.

"Shrilly piped the pipes, squeak and hum went the fiddles, but the sound
that was sweetest to her was the pound of the horses' hoofs on the road
in front. That was music indeed, and as soon as she heard it she
bestowed one wild kiss on her father and bounded from the house. An
instant later and she was gone. One flash of her white robe at the gate,
then all was dark on the highway, and only the old father stood in the
wide-open door, waiting, as he vowed he would wait, till his daughter
returned.

"She did not go alone. A faithful groom was behind her, and from him was
learned the conclusion of that quest. For an hour and a half they rode;
then they came upon a chapel in the mountains, in which were burning
unwonted lights. At the sight the lady drew rein and almost fell from
her horse into the arms of her lackey. 'A marriage!' she murmured; 'a
marriage!' and pointed to an empty coach standing in the shadow of a
wide-spreading tree. It was their family coach. How well she knew it!
Rousing herself, she made for the chapel door. 'I will stop these
unhallowed rites!' she cried! 'I am her mother, and she is not of age.'
But the lackey drew her back by her rich white dress. 'Look!' he cried,
pointing in at one of the windows, and she looked. The man she loved
stood before the altar with her daughter. He was smiling in that
daughter's face with a look of passionate devotion. It went like a
dagger to her heart. Crushing her hands against her face, she wailed out
some fearful protest; then she dashed toward the door with 'Stop! stop!'
on her lips. But the faithful lackey at her side drew her back once
more. 'Listen!' was his word, and she listened. The minister, whose form
she had failed to note in her first hurried look, was uttering his
benediction. She had come too late. The young couple were married.

"Her servant said, or so the tradition runs, that when she realized this
she grew calm as walking death. Making her way into the chapel, she
stood ready at the door to greet them as they issued forth, and when
they saw her there, with her rich bedraggled robe and the gleam of
jewels on a neck she had not even stopped to envelop in more than the
veil from her hair, the bridegroom seemed to realize what he had done
and stopped the bride, who in her confusion would have fled back to the
altar where she had just