“I never once thought about that, at all, papa,” said Salome, in a mournful tone.

“No, I’ll warrant you didn’t!  Well, don’t think anything more of it now.  And don’t expect too much of human nature.  In this year of grace there are no saints left alive!  Believe that, and accept it, my girl!”

CHAPTER VI.

A HORRIBLE MYSTERY ON THE WEDDING DAY.

On the day before the wedding all the preparations were completed.

The grounds around the castle, paradisial in their own natural beauty under this heavenly blue sky of June, were adorned with all that art and taste and wealth could bring to enhance their attractions in honor of the occasion.

Triumphal arches of rare exotic flowers were erected at intervals along the avenue leading from the castle courtyard down to the bridge that spanned Loch Lone from the island, to the mountain hamlet on the main land.  The bridge itself was canopied with evergreens, and starred with roses.  Every house in the little hamlet of Lone was so wreathed and festooned with flowers as to look like a fairy bower.  The little gothic church, said to be coeval in history with the castle itself, was decorated within and without as for an Easter or Christmas festival.  And the only inn of the place, an antiquated but most comfortable public house, known for centuries as the “Hereward Arms,” was almost covered with flags, banners and bushes, in honor of the presence of the Duke of Hereward, and the Marquis of Arondelle, especially, and of other noble guests who had arrived there to assist at the wedding of the next day.

Yes, the expectant bridegroom and his aged father were at the Hereward Arms.  Etiquette did not admit of their being guests at the Castle on the day before the expected marriage.  And much ado had the young marquis to keep the duke quietly at the inn.  The old man enjoying his pleasing hallucination of being still the proprietor of Lone, and the possessor of a princely revenue, fretted against the delay that detained him at the Hereward Arms, when he was so anxious to go on to Castle Lone.  And his son did not venture to leave him until late at night, when he left him in bed and asleep.

Then the young marquis walked out and crossed the evergreen covered bridge leading to the Castle grounds.  He knew that custom did not sanction his visit to his bride-elect on the night before their wedding, but he could at least gaze on the walls that sheltered her, while he rambled over the rich lawns, parterres, shrubberies, and terraces.

Within the Castle, meanwhile, all the arrangements for the morning’s festivity were completed.

Halls, drawing-rooms, parlors, chambers, and dining-rooms, all sumptuously furnished and beautifully decorated, were ready for the wedding guests.

In the dining-room the luxurious wedding-breakfast was set.  The service was of solid gold and finest Sevres china; the viands comprised every foreign and domestic delicacy fitting the feast.