e be kind enough to take this mad woman in custody?"
exclaimed Anglesea, beside himself with fear, shame and wrath.

"In custody, is it? If anybody is taken in custody, it is that man there!
Yes, it is you I am talking about! It's you, for bigamy! I wish I had got
a warrant out and fetched a couple of bailiffs to do it, too! Why don't
you let this girl go? You might's well do it first as last. You'll have to
do it, you know!" said the woman.

"Will you give me my daughter, Col. Anglesea?" quietly questioned Abel
Force.

"No, I will not give you my wife!" fiercely retorted the bridegroom.

But at this moment the two sturdy Maryland farmers came up on either side
of the man, and, each taking a firm grip of his arms, with gentle
strength, released the half-swooning bride, who immediately dropped upon
the bosom of her father.

"I shall hold every man here to a strict account for this outrage!"
fiercely hissed the furious bridegroom.

"Quite right, sir! We will be at your service at any time," said William
Elk.

Abel Force bore his unfortunate daughter off to the side pews, where her
mother, her sisters and her governess had retreated, and where they sat,
confounded and overwhelmed by all that had passed.

"Take her, Elfrida," he said, lifting the girl and laying her in the arms
of her mother. "And do not allow that man to come near her. He has behaved
badly in not giving her up, on my demand, until we can inquire into this
matter. It may be that this strange woman is a lunatic, or an impostor. We
shall see."

Mrs. Force made no reply. She could not speak. She took her daughter on
her lap, as if Odalite had been a young child, and laid the pale cheek of
the girl on her bosom, and motioned her husband to return to the group
around the bridegroom.

"Odalite, darling, do not grieve. No wrong of any sort shall be done you.
You have your father and your mother, dear, and our faithful love shall
never leave you," said Abel Force, as he stooped and kissed his daughter's
pale forehead, and walked away.

But Odalite made no sign.

"And you have us, darling, darling sister," said Elva, taking up and
kissing one cold hand.

"And you have Le, as true as steel!" put in Wynnette.

"And, oh, I knew! I knew something was going to happen to stop it all! I
didn't know whether it was going to be a forbidding of the banns, or an
apoplectic fit, or an earthquake, but I knew something would happen," said
Elva, taking the bride's