, went to his desk and took up
his prayer-book.

Richard returned with quick steps to where I was sitting.

"Come," said he, smiling; "he is waiting."

Startled and trembling, I made no answer save an effort to reach the
door.

"For heaven's sake, Agnes, do not make a scene! Recover your usual good
sense. Do you not see that it is best?" whispered Richard, with
earnestness almost fierce.

And so hurried, flushed and doubting, overcome with heat and excitement,
I permitted myself to be led to the altar.

The ceremony soon ended. As the clerk shut his book and we turned to
depart, I could not realize that this abrupt, informal marriage was a
reality. As I passed down the aisle, a white, fluttering, impalpable, and
yet clearly-defined form arose from one of the empty seats, and
unobstructed by carved wood or heavy upholstery, passed out through
frame and plaster! The slight figure, the golden hair, I remembered too
well--it was that of the _ghost of Bristed Hall_!

I clenched Richard's arm so that he muttered an oath, and said sharply,
"My God, Agnes, what are you doing?"

"Did you not see that figure? It passed straight through the wall," I
whispered in affright.

"Move on--none of your d--d nonsense, Agnes," said Richard, scowling;
then hastily adding, "Excuse me, love, you confuse me. My happiness makes
me forget myself."

My mind surged with conflicting emotions. I felt a secret joy in the
knowledge that I was united to the man I loved. This romantic, half
run-away match pleased the romance of my nature, and yet I was unable to
resist the feeling that I had done wrong. A strange foreboding of evil
intruded upon my joy.

Richard that evening was gay almost to wildness. "O Agnes! Agnes! we have
outwitted them, the fools! They thought they had conquered me, but you
are mine, and I have won!"

He talked so disconnectedly, I thought he had taken too much wine.
Indeed, to this he owned.

"I could drink flask after flask of it, I am so happy!" he exclaimed.

We were happy that night and drove home in the cool of the morning.

It was arranged that our marriage should for the present be kept private,
as Richard thought if it were known it might disorganize my school.

CHAPTER XIV.

We had been wedded but two weeks when one morning Richard asked me to
show him my deed of the property.

"How strange," said he, as he looked it over. "Do you know, Agnes, before
I wedded you I might have married many