Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-23
:, Mlo,ntbarry's Y brother made sign. admitting

nls lordship dies first" :" the lawyer pro- oeeued, II have been informed that the only pIovision he can make for his widow con- els1s III . rent charge on the property of no more Inan s4oO year. His retiring pension ana allowances, it is well known, die with nim Four hundred year is therefore all that he can leave to the countess if he leaves her widow"
 TOUT hundred yea is not all, y was the reply to this My brother has insured his ne TOT 4lO,OOO; and he has settled the whole or IL on the countess, in the event of his deathn -
 ihls announcement produced strong sen- satlon. Men looked at each other and re- peated the three startling words, ssTen thou. sand poundsP Driven fairly to the wall. the lawye made last effort to defend his nosi- tion.
 May ask who made that settlement a condition of the marriageq' be said. sSurely 1t was not the countess herself7n
 Henry Westwick answered. "It was tba countess brother" and added. "which comes to the same thing"
 AIter that there was no more to be said so long, at least, Montbarry,s brother was present. The talk flowed into other channels. and the doctor went home
 But hls morbid curiosity about the countess was not set at rest yet. In his leisure mo- ments he found himself wondering whether Lord Montbarry's family would succeed in stopping the marriage after all And more than this, he was conscious of a growing de- sire to see the infatuated man himself. Every day, during the brief interval before the wedding, he looked in at the club. on the chance of hearing some news. Nothing had happened, so far as the club knew. The countess position was secure; Montbarry's resolution to he her husband was unshaken. They were to be married in the chapel at Spanish place. So much the doctor discovered about them-and no more.
 On the day of the wedding, after a feeble struggle with himself, he actually sacrificed his patients and their guineas, and slipped away secretly to see the marriage. To the end of his life he was angry with anybody who reminded him of what he had done on that dayl
 The wedding was strictly private. A close carriage stood at the church door: a few people. mostly of the lower class, and mostly old women, were scattered about t,n interior of the building. Here and there Dr. Wv. brow detected the faces of some of his breth- ren of the club, attracted by curiosity, like himself. Four persons only stood before the altar-the bride and bridegroom and their two | witnesses. One of these last was a faded looking woman, who might have been the countess companion or maid; the other was undoubtedly her brother, Baron Rivar. The bridal party (the bride herself included) wore their ordinary morning costume Lo:d Montbarry, personally viewed, was middle aged military man of the ordinary type; nothing ill the leastsemarkable distinguished him either in face or figure. Baron Rivar. | again, in his way, was another conventional l representative of another we'll known type. One sees his finely pointed mustache, his bold eyes, his crisp1y curling hair, and his dashing carriage of the head repeated hum dreds of times over on the boulevards of Paris. The only noteworthy point about him was of the negative sort He was not in the ,east like his sister. Even the officiating priest was only a harmless, humble looking old man, who went through his duties re- signedly, and felt visible rheumatic difi- culties every time he bent his knees The one remarkable person, the countess herself, only raised her veil at the beginning of the ceremony, and presented nothing 1 in her plain dress that was worth a second look. Never, on the face of it, was there a less interesting and less romantic mar riage than this. From time tN time the doc tor glanced round at tke door or up at the galleries, vaguely anticipating the appear ance of some protesting stranger, in possess sion of some terrible secret, commissioned to forbid the progress of the service. Noth- ing in the shape of an event occurred-noth- ing extraordinary, nothing dramatic. Bound fast together as man and wife, the two dis appeared, followed by their witnesses, to sign the registers; and still Dr. Wybrow waited, and still he cherished the obstinate hope that something worth seeing must certainly hap pen yet.
 The interval passed and the married cou- pie, returning to the church, walked together down the nave to the door. Dr. Wybrow drew back as they approached To his con- i fusion and surprise, the countess discovered i him. He heard her say to her husband, | "One moment, see friend" Lord Mont barry bowed and waited. She stepped up to the doctor, took his hand, and wrung it hard He felt her overpowering black eyes
 looking at hiln through her veil. "One sSer
 more, you see, on the way to the end" She
 whispered those strange words, and returned
 to her husband. Before the doctor could re-
 cover himself and follow her, Lord and Lady
 Montbarry had stepped into their carriage
 and had driven away.
 Outside the church door stood the three ol
 four members of the club, who, like Dr.
 Wybrow, had watched the ceremony out o1
 curiosity. Near them was the brides brother
 waiting alone. He was evidently bent or
 seeing the man whom his sister had spoker
 to, ill broad daylight His bold eyes rested
 on tine doctors face, with momentary fasl
 of suspicion in them. The cloud suddenly
 cleared away; the baron smiled with charm
 ing courtesy, lifted his hat to his sister, friend, and walked off.
 l >l(XX(NAA] x El!,,'-) l
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