Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1879-11-27

this house alone7" asked Won Stein.
Alone" returned the lady II am
the last of my race"
Tie lady was beautiful, the man was
young. In such cases love is sometimes
found to be plant that does not take
long in growing. Moreover, Won Stein,
though noble, was poor, and the lady the
last of her race, the heiress of an ancient
lineage. Possibly the notion of the in
heritance the lonely girl might bring
with her had some part in the sudden
passion which filled the young mans
heart. Who can tell?
1t was not long before he found him.
self kneeling at her feet and Offering the
beautiful maiden all that he had TO offer
his devotion and his life.
The lady listened silently and with
bowed head to his ardent pleading.
Then she said, looking up. but always
from him, and speaking absently: 81
have heard those words before"
"But never from lips so true, 30 hon.
est, 80 disinterested," said the young
man, warmly, forgetting in his fascina-
ton for the beautiful lady how he had
certainly taken her inheritance into
account in the first place.
The lady sighed snd was silent.
Then she spoke "If yield to your
wishes we must be married at once"
At onceW cried Won Stein, perhaps
little startled. Yet what lover ever
found the time between betrothal and
marriage too shortl 81 am ready" he
said, gallsntly and impatient"
The lady smiled, moved softly away
to an old worm-eaten chest which was
set against the wall, took from it two
rings and white veil and crown of
myrtle, which she laid upon her dark
flowing hair. Her dress was white.
Come" she said to her lover, and led
the way.
A little bewildered, after the fashion
of bridegrooms in general, and scarcely
knowing whether to be happy or alarm
ed, the young man followed his bride
through, as it seemed to him, miles of
dimly-lighted vaulted passages, where
the damp was trickling down the walls,
and where unthought of steps up and
down were ready at every moment TO
trip up the unwary passer. The lady,
however, seemed to be well acquainted
with every turn and twist of the place,
and giving her hand to her lover, she
led him on step by step, until at length
they reached vaulted cham Der, which
they had no sooner entered than great
iron door shut heavily behind them,
with sound that echoed through
every arch of the dimly-lighted build
ing.
1t was the chapel
"Your hand is cold, my love-" said
the young man, tencerly, to his bride.
No matter; yours has warmth and
life enough for both," returned the lady.
Yet the life seemed actually to ebb
served the stone figure of bishop,
which was sculptured on gravestone i'll
the center of the chapel, gradually rise
from its recumbent position and walk up
the steps of the altar.
The eyes of the bishop famed like
glow worms, the candles upon the altar
lighted of themselves, and the tones of
the organs rolled solemnly through that
vaulted building.
Kurt Won Stein, wilt thou take the
Lady of Windeck for thy lawful wife,"
said the bishop, in a low, sepulchral
tone, which sounded as though not he.
but some muffled voice dozen yards
away ware speaking.
A this moment the whole horror of
the scene seemed to break upon the
young man. Around him, slowly rising
from their graves, he saw the shrouded
forms and tieshless faces of the dead,
who came a. witnesses to the ghostly
Even the face of his bride,
rs his fascinated eyes fixed upon it,
wore the livid hue of death. He .urned
in an agony to fly from the horrible
scene, tried to snatch his hand from the
cold, hard grip of the phantom lady,
fell, as ne believed, senseless upon the
chapel floor awoke to find himself,
at dawn Of day, lying at his full length
On the moss-grown stone where he had
sat to rest the night before, at the castle
door, and his horse intent upon an early
meal on the rank heritage of the grass
grown court.
When he told his tale in the village
ard st the neighboring castles, no one IN
the least doubted that he had almost, if
not quite, laid the unquiet spirit OF the
lady of Windeck.-Hayper's Weekly.
m Ill