Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-08-13


"Where is Captain Byrnholm? He
should have been here before this.
Where is Allstone Radcliffe, the
brother of the bride? He should have
given her away, instead OF that
there was stranger upon whose arm
she was leaning. Who can he be, and
what means that evil light of triumph
that CLEANS in his eyes? and why do
the bridesmaids and their attendants
look so pale and troubled?"
| Such were some of the whispered
calculations that followed the entrance
of the wedding party, while no one
seemed to comprehend the meaning OF
the strange scene being enacted before
them.
"Why is the bride so pale and death
ly?" asked Emily Dolbarre OF her
friend.
But Sara Fairhaven did not seem to
hear her She was leaning forward,
her whole attention concentrated upon
the singular scene before her.
why does everybody look so
startled and dismayed?" her friend per-
sisted '"The bride looks wretched, not
happy, as she should do; the friends
seem dazed and miserable, as if some
sudden calamity had overtaken them;
and I do not think Captain Byrnholm
fne-looking at all-he is exceedingly
repulsive to me. Do tell me, Sara,
what all this means?'
81 am sure I do not know" the
rector's daughter gasped THAT is not
Captain Byrnholm at all, but stranger
who has been visiting him of late.
The groom is not here at all, and the
whole party look as if they had come
to attend funeral instead of wedd-
ing"
The strange group had passed up the
aisle and now stood before the rector,
who was waiting to receive them, but
who now also seemed stricken with a
sudden panic, and almost paralized
with establishment and uncertainty as
to what was expected of him.
The bride appeared like a person
being led to the scaffold. Her face was
as colorless as her spotless robe, and
there were tense drawn lines of agony
about her beautiful mouth which no
one had ever seen there before; while
her eyes had in them the wild stare Of
a person on the brink of insanity.
Her companion was tall, we'll
formed man of perhaps thirty years.
His head was massive, but crowned
with a heavy growth of yellow hair
that had a tinge of dull red in it. His
features were somewhat large and
coarse, and there was a curve to his
chin, set look about his mouth, that
betrayed an indomitable will and a
cruel nature. His eyes were a reddish
demonstrating eyes, like those
of some repulsive reptile-and they
cleaned at this moment with singu-
lar triumphant expression and fierce
ness of purpose that made him posi-
lively hideous.
The brides hand rested upon his
arm, where he had seized it, and held
it as if to force it to lie in it's place.
The bridesmaids and others of the
party, with pale faces and affrighted
looks, followed at distance.
AS LuCy SCODpCu OClO1C IAC C1GO4 i Oil
ing, the rector turned from one to
another as if seeking an explanation,
and a dead-like hush had fallen upon
every one present.
The groom for a moment released
his iron grip upon the brides hand,
and hastily pulling folded paper from
his bosom, he thrust it into the clergy
mans hand, and in low, authoritative
tones commanded him to procede.
The rector examined the document
carefully. 1t was evidently all right,
but that fact seemed to render him
more helpless than before, and he stood
staring blankly into those two faces
before him-one so dear, the other so
strange.
To an observes, it would have seemed
as if every individual in that vast
place had been petrifed-suddenly
transformed, as it were, from living,
breathing humanity to lifeless, soulless
statues. There was not sound, scarce
a. breath, to stir the atmosphere.
Every heart seemingly stood still,
waiting, in sort of horrible fasina-
ton for what should come next.
"Proceed!' again commanded the
bridegroom, this time in tones that
penetrated the utmost corner of the
church.
The trembling rector could not obey,
though he evidently shrank from the
duty with adherence.
He had known the fair bride since
her earliest childhood, when he lad
been summoned to her dying mother,
and had called her to him, taken her
upon his knees, and taught her the
answer to the first question of the
catechism. He had watched her budd-
ing into girlhood, developing into
womanhOod, and she had become to
him almost like an own dear daughter
He had known her betrothal to Cap
tain Byrnholm, a young man whom he
sincerely honored and respected; and
he had rejoiced in their mutual happi-
ness, and blessed them both when told
of it. He had come there today to
pronounce over them the words which