er long waiting in the tomb, and waking to find
herself alone when the floods were out, and even the Crypt submerged, she
sought safety and warmth elsewhere; and how she came to the Castle in the
night, and found the strange man alone. I said: "That was dangerous,
daughter, if not wrong. The man, brave and devoted as he is, must answer
me--your father." At that she was greatly upset, and before going on
with her narrative, drew me close in her arms, and whispered to me:

"Be gentle to me, father, for I have had much to bear. And be good to
him, for he holds my heart in his breast!" I reassured her with a gentle
pressure--there was no need to speak. She then went on to tell me about
her marriage, and how her husband, who had fallen into the belief that
she was a Vampire, had determined to give even his soul for her; and how
she had on the night of the marriage left him and gone back to the tomb
to play to the end the grim comedy which she had undertaken to perform
till my return; and how, on the second night after her marriage, as she
was in the garden of the Castle--going, as she shyly told me, to see if
all was well with her husband--she was seized secretly, muffled up,
bound, and carried off. Here she made a pause and a digression.
Evidently some fear lest her husband and myself should quarrel assailed
her, for she said:

"Do understand, father, that Rupert's marriage to me was in all ways
regular, and quite in accord with our customs. Before we were married I
told the Archbishop of my wish. He, as your representative during your
absence, consented himself, and brought the matter to the notice of the
Vladika and the Archimandrites. All these concurred, having exacted from
me--very properly, I think--a sacred promise to adhere to my
self-appointed task. The marriage itself was orthodox in all
ways--though so far unusual that it was held at night, and in darkness,
save for the lights appointed by the ritual. As to that, the Archbishop
himself, or the Archimandrite of Spazac, who assisted him, or the
Vladika, who acted as Paranymph, will, all or any of them, give you full
details. Your representative made all inquiries as to Rupert Sent Leger,
who lived in Vissarion, though he did not know who I was, or from his
point of view who I had been. But I must tell you of my rescue."

And so she went on to tell me of that unavailing journey south by her
captors; of their bafflement by the cordon which Rupert had e