CHAPTER XXI.
WOULD HEAVEN TURN AWAY FROM HER WILD APPEAL?
"Oh, Thou to whom my thoughts are known, Calm, oh, calm these trembling fears; Oh, turn away the world's cold frown, And dry these falling tears! Oh, leave me not alone in grief-- Send this anguished heart relief! Oh, make my life Thy future care! Sweet Spirit, hear my prayer-- Ah, hear my prayer!"
Beneath the ruined wing of Castle Ellsworth were mysterious undergroundpassages and chambers, and in one of these grewsome places Dainty Chasewas held a prisoner, while over her head, in the golden light of thesummer day, the stirring events of the interrupted wedding were inprogress.
While wrapped in the unconsciousness of a drugged sleep the nightprevious, the hapless girl had been borne away from her mother's side inthe arms of the person who had so successfully enacted the part of themonk's ghost, and placed on a couch, where she slept on heavily till theday was far advanced toward its meridian.
She woke at last in semi-darkness, lighted only by the dim rays of asputtering kerosene lamp, whose vile odor made the close air almostinsufferable.
"Mamma!" she murmured, stretching out her arms for the beloved one whohad slumbered by her side all night.
But her yearning arms touched empty air, and she found herself restingon a hard and narrow mattress, while her eyes, growing accustomed to thefeeble light, showed her the bare stone wall of a narrow chamber like adungeon, whose only ventilation came from narrow slits in the heavyoaken door.
Half-dazed, the girl lay and gazed about her unfamiliar surroundingsuntil, suddenly overpowered with terror, she shrieked aloud, andspringing up, dashed herself against the hard, unyielding door in thewild desire of escape.
In vain! The pressure of her light form did not even shake the heavy,cell-like door that was securely locked on the outside.
She could only sink back upon the narrow cot, while a terrifiedrealization of the truth forced itself on her bewildered senses.
She was a prisoner in some unknown dungeon, locked away from her belovedforever.
The spite and malice of her enemies had triumphed at last. They hadparted her from Love before the dawn of her wedding-day. The secondattempt to kidnap her must have succeeded well, for she could remembernothing of how she had been brought here.
"Ah! I comprehend all now!" she cried, despairingly. "That pitcher ofice-water last night had somehow a bitter taste. We were drugged--mammaand I--and I was stolen away in the hope of preventing my marriage toLove, so that one of my rivals might be forced on him in my stead, lesthe lose his inheritance!"
Then, in spite of her misery, a sweet, mocking laugh dimpled the girl'slips, as she added, gratefully:
"Oh, what a clever thought it was of Love's, that secret marriage! Ifeared I did wrong letting him persuade me into it; but I see now hispresentiments of evil had good ground, and he did wisely in making mehis wife two weeks ago."
She clasped her dimpled hands together in a sort of ecstacy, as shecontinued:
"And oh! how happy he has made me, my darling young husband! How full ofbliss our secret honeymoon! Oh, I can never forget while life lasts thesweetness of our wedded love! But how chagrined Aunt Judith and my cruelcousins will be when Love tells them the startling truth. I can guesshow they will try to deceive him. They will say to him: 'Dainty haseloped with Vernon Ashley. He was her lover all the while, though shemade you think he was Ela's. Now that she has deceived you, it isimperative for you to marry some one else immediately, lest by the termsof your father's will you lose your grand inheritance!'"
The blue eyes beamed, and the rosy mouth dimpled proudly as Dainty'sthoughts ran on happily.
"They will be fit to die of rage when they hear my darling laugh them toscorn, and say: 'All your wicked plots to part me from my love are invain! I knew you were scheming to do this all along, so I forestalledyou by making her my wife in secret two weeks ago, and the _denouement_of to-day shows me how wisely I acted. Now you must restore my love tome, or I will denounce you to the world for your treachery!'"
This was how Dainty pictured it to herself, and in her excitement itseemed to her that Love would be coming directly to release her fromher confinement, because they could have no interest in keeping themapart any longer, knowing that they were married now, and that there wasno chance for Olive and Ela to get him away from his wedded wife.
Oh, how impatient she grew, waiting and hoping for him to come! But longhours of silence and solitude dragged by, till her brave heart began tofail, and she sobbed, piteously:
"Perhaps they are unrelenting in their hate, and will not tell him whereto find me. They may leave me here to starve and die!"
Already she felt faint from lack of food, and her heart sank hopelesslyfrom its new dread. She fell on her knees, and prayed to Heaven to havepity on her sorrow, and send her speedy rescue.
It was indeed a sight to move the pity of Heaven; the innocent,white-gowned girl kneeling on the cold stone floor of the damp cell,with her bare feet and naked arms and shoulders, her appealing blue eyesraised upward, the golden hair streaming like a shining veil about herslender form, her sweet lips moving in prayer to God. Would He indeedhear that prayer unmoved, or would He send her relief?
The slow hours dragged away without interruption, and she saw withterror that her miserable light began to flicker with exhaustion. Soonthe desolation of darkness would be added to loneliness and hunger.