A SUDDEN WEDDING.
It was midnight when the Richmond train reached Wendover, and Alden Lytton went to the Reindeer for the night.
Early in the morning he arose and breakfasted, and ordered a horse to take him to Blue Cliff Hall.
Just as he was getting into the saddle Jerome, the colored footman from the Hall, rode up holding two papers in his left hand, and staring at them with perplexity.
"Halloo, Jerome, how do you do?" called out Mr. Lytton, cheerfully.
The boy looked up, and his surprise and perplexity instantly mounted to consternation and amazement.
"Well, dis yer's witchcraf', and nuffin else!" he exclaimed.
"What is witchcraft, you goose?" laughed Alden.
"Look yer, massa," said Jerome, riding up to his side and putting the two papers in his hand, "you jes look at dem dere!"
Alden took the papers and looked as required.
Both papers were telegrams. One was his own telegram to Emma Cavendish, saying:
"I shall be down to see you by the next train."
The other was a telegram from Emma Cavendish to himself, saying:
"Come down at once."
"Well, what of all this? Here is a message and its answer. What is there in this like witchcraft?"
"Why, massa, 'cause de answer came afore de message went, and you yerself come quick as enny. Dere's de witchcraf'."
"What do you mean?"
"I knowed as de telegraf was fast, and likewise de steam cars, but I didn't know as dey was bof so fast as to answer a message afore it was axed, and fetch a gemman afore he was sent for. But here's de answer, and here's you."
"This is all Hebrew to me."
"Which it is likewise a conundrum to me," retorted Jerome.
"Tell me what you have been doing, and perhaps I shall understand you," laughed Alden Lytton.
"Well, massa, this mornin' by daybreak Miss Emmer sent for me, and gave me this," he said, pointing to the young lady's telegram. "And, says she:
"'Jerome, saddle the fastest horse in de stable and ride as fast as you can to Wendover and send this message off to Mr. Lytton. Lose no time, for we want him to come down here as soon as possible.'
"Well, Massa Alden, I didn't lose no time, sar, nor likewise let de grass grow underneaf of my feet. I reckon I was in de saddle and off in about ten minutes. But fast as I was, bress you, sar, de telegraf was faster! When I got to de office and hand de message in to de gemman dere I says:
"'Send it off quick, 'cause Miss Emmer wants Massa Alden to come down right away.'
"'All right,' he says. 'De young gemman will be down by de next train. And here's yer answer to yer message.'
"And sure nuff, Massa Alden, he hands me this yer," said Jerome, pointing to Alden's own telegram. "And here's you too! Now, what anybody think ob dat if it a'n't witchcraf'?"
"It is a coincidence, my good fellow. I was coming down, and I telegraphed Miss Cavendish to that effect. When you brought her message to the office you received mine, which must have been delayed. It is a coincidence."
"Well I s'pose a coimperence is a fine book-larnin' name for witchcraf'; but it's all the same thing after all," persisted Jerome.
"I hope they are all well at Blue Cliffs," said Mr. Lytton, who felt some little uneasiness connected with Emma's telegram.
"Yes, sar, dey's all purty well, 'cept 'tis de ole madam. She a'n't been that hearty as she ought to 'a' been."
"I hope she is not seriously ill."
"No, sar; dough I did leave a message long o' Doctor Willet to come out dere dis morning; but you know de ole madam do frequent send for de doctor."
"Come, Jerome, we must get on to the Hall," said Mr. Lytton, as he rode out of the inn yard and turned into the road leading to Blue Cliffs, followed by the servant.
Emma Cavendish, who was on the lookout for Jerome, was surprised and delighted to see her lover ride up first, attended by her messenger.
"It's witchcraf', Miss Emmer!" exclaimed Jerome, as he got out of his saddle to take the young gentleman's horse.
"It is a coincidence," laughed Alden, as he ran up the steps to greet his beloved.
"Well, dat's de Latin for witchcraf', Miss Emmer; but it's all de same t'ing in English," persisted Jerome, as he led away the horses.
"Jerome tells me that grandma is not well. I am sorry to hear it," said Alden, as he walked with Emma into the house.
"Grandma is nearly ninety years old, and she can not ever be well in this world; but she will soon be very well indeed, for she is very near her eternal youth and health," said Emma, with tender, cheerful earnestness.
Alden bowed in silence as they entered the drawing-room together.
"Grandma told me to telegraph for you to come down at once, Alden. She thinks that she can not be here many days, and perhaps not many hours. And she wishes to see you at once. Will you go to her now, dear, or would you rather go to your room first?"
"I will go to see madam first. I have but ridden from the Reindeer this morning, and so I am neither fatigued nor dusted. I telegraphed you yesterday that I was coming down to see you to-day, and my telegram should have reached you yesterday; but it seems to have been delayed. I left the city by the noon train and reached the village at midnight. So I happened to meet Jerome just after he had taken my delayed telegram from the agent, which he supposed to be a magical answer to your message[."]
"The whole arrangements of telegraph wires, steam engines, gas-lights and lucifer matches are magical to him," said Emma, smiling. "And now stay here a moment, dear, and wait until I go and let grandma know that you have come," she added, as she went out of the room.
Emma Cavendish found the old lady sitting up in her easy-chair by the sunny window, looking very white and fragile and serene.
"Alden has come, grandma, dear. When Jerome went to send the telegram off for him he found Mr. Lytton in Wendover. Mr. Lytton had just arrived from Richmond and was about to start for Blue Cliffs. It was a coincidence," said Emma, sitting down by the old lady.
"It was a providence, my dear child—a providence which has saved two days in time that is very short. And so he is here?" said the old lady, caressing the golden hair of the girl.
"Yes, dear grandma, he is here and waiting to come to you the moment you are ready to receive him."
"Tell him to come now. And do you come with him."
Emma left the room, and soon returned with Alden Lytton.
"Welcome, my son! Come here and embrace me," said the old lady, holding out her arms.
Alden went and folded the faded form to his bosom and pressed a kiss upon the venerable brow, as the tears sprang to his eyes; for he saw that she was dying.
"Alden, I am going home. I must go. I want to go. I have been here so long. I am very tired. I have had enough of this. I want to go home to my Father. I want to see my Savior face to face. I want to meet my husband and my children, who have been waiting for me so long on the other side. What are you crying for, Emma?"
"Because I can not help it, grandma. I know I ought not to cry, when you will soon be so happy," sobbed the poor child.
"And when I am going to make you and your worthy young lover so happy, my love. Come, wipe your eyes and smile! I shall soon be very happy, and I want to make you and Alden as happy as I can before I go. Now sit down, both of you, and listen to me."
Alden and Emma sat down, one on each side of her.
She was a little tired with the words she had already spoken, and she put a small vial of ammonia to her nose and smelled it before she went on.
"Now," she said, as she put aside the vial and gave a hand to each of the young people, "I want you to attend to me and do exactly as I bid you."
"We will indeed," answered Alden and Emma, in a breath.
"I wish you would be married here in my presence tomorrow morning."
Alden Lytton gave her hand a grateful squeeze.
"You should be married to-day, if there were time to make the necessary arrangements."
"Are there any really necessary arrangements that can not be made to-day?" Alden inquired, eagerly.
"Yes, my son. A messenger must take a letter to Lytton Lodge to explain the circumstances, and to ask your sister Laura and your aunt and uncle Lytton to come immediately, to be present at your marriage with my granddaughter. If the messenger to Lytton Lodge should start at noon to-day, as he must, he will hardly reach the Lodge before night. Nor will your relatives be able to reach here before noon tomorrow. So you see the necessity of the short delay."
"Yes, certainly," answered Alden.
"Another messenger must take a similar letter to Beresford Manors, to summon my son and my youngest granddaughter, and your worthy guardian, Mr. Brent, who is on a long visit there. And it will also take about twenty-four hours to bring them here."
"Yes, of course," admitted Alden.
"I say nothing of the time it will take to get a license and to fetch Mr. Lyle, who must perform the ceremony, because that can be done in a few hours."
"If it were possible, I would like to have Mary Grey summoned by telegraph to attend the wedding," said Emma.
"Ah, yes, certainly she ought to be here; but there is scarcely a chance, the time is so short," said Mrs. Cavendish, as she again resorted to the vial of ammonia.
"Mrs. Grey is in very bad health. She would not come," explained Alden.
"Go, now, my dear children. I am very tired, and I must sleep a while," sighed the old lady.
And Emma and Alden kissed her and left the room.
In the passage outside they met Mrs. Fanning, who seemed to be waiting for them.
She cordially welcomed Mr. Lytton, of whose arrival she had heard from the servants. And then she inquired of Emma how Mrs. Cavendish was getting on.
"She grows weaker in the body and stronger in the spirit with every successive hour, I think," replied Miss Cavendish.
"Well, my dear, I only wished to ask you that, and to tell you that I have had lunch laid in the little breakfast room, if Mr. Lytton would like any," said Mrs. Fanning, who now took equal share in all Emma's housekeeping cares.
But Alden, when appealed to, declined the lunch and hinted that they had better see to sending off the messengers to Beresford Manors and Lytton Lodge immediately.
And that same noon the letters were dispatched.
Alden Lytton had come down to Blue Cliffs for the purpose of confiding to Emma Cavendish the story of his first boyish passion for Mary Grey, and of the violent manner in which it was cured forever. But finding all the circumstances so opposite to what he expected to find them, he changed his purpose. He could not bring himself to add another item to the disturbing influences then surrounding Emma.
That afternoon, also, Dr. Willet came to Blue Cliffs, and Emma had to accompany him to the bedside of her grandmother, and afterward to hold quite a long conversation with him in the library.
A few minutes after the doctor left the house, Mr. Lyle, who had heard of the illness of Mrs. Cavendish, arrived to inquire after her condition.
Emma had to receive the minister and accompany him to her grandmother's chamber, and to stay there and join in the prayers that were offered for the sick woman.
Mr. Lyle remained with the family all the afternoon; and having received from Mr. Lytton a notice of the ceremony he was desired to perform the next day, he promised to be at Blue Cliff Hall again punctually at noon, and then took leave.
Very early the next morning Alden Lytton mounted the swiftest horse in the Cavendish stables and rode to Wendover to procure his marriage license.
He did not stay long in the village, you may be sure; but, leaving his horse to rest and drink at the Reindeer trough, he hurried to the town-hall and took out his license, returned to the inn, remounted his horse, and rode immediately back to Blue Cliff Hall.
As he rode up the avenue toward the front of the house he saw that there had already been some arrival. A large lumbering old family carriage was being driven, empty, around toward the stables.
Alden quickened his horse's pace and rode up to the door, dismounted, threw his reins to Peter, the young groom, who was waiting to take the horse, and then ran up the steps into the house.
He almost immediately found himself in the arms of his sister Laura, who had run out to receive him.
"Oh, Alden, my darling, I am so delighted! I wish you so much joy!" she exclaimed.
"Only the occasion that has hastened my happiness is a sad one to others, Laura, my dear," answered the young man, gravely.
"I don't think so at all. I have seen Mrs. Cavendish. I never saw a happier woman. She is so happy that she wishes to make everybody else as happy as she is herself," said Laura.
As she spoke John Lytton came lumbering into the hall.
"Alden, boy, how do? I never was so astonished in my life! But under the circumstances I hope that it is all right to hurry up things in this a-way. Your Aunt Kitty couldn't come; nyther could your grandmother nor the gals. Fact is, they hadn't the gownds to appear in. But they wish you joy; and so do I. For, though I do think you might a-looked higher, because the Lyttonses is a much older family than the Caverndishers, and, in fact, were lords of the manor when the Caverndishers were hewers—"
"Uncle John," broke in Alden, with a laugh, "pray let that subject drop for the present! And follow Jerome, who is waiting to show you a room where you can brush your coat and smooth your hair, and—"
"Make myself tidy for the wedding? All right, my boy! March on, Jerome!" said John Lytton, good-humoredly, as he followed his guide upstairs.
As he disappeared another carriage rolled up to the front door, and Dr. Beresford Jones, Electra and Mr. Joseph Brent—Victor Hartman—alighted from it and entered the house.
Alden and Laura Lytton stepped forward to receive them.
Electra seized and kissed Laura in a hurry, while the gentlemen were shaking hands, and then she flew to Alden and congratulated him with much effusion.
"Now, Laura, take me where I can change my dress quickly. I brought a white India muslin with me to wear, for I am to be bride-maid, of course! So are you, I suppose. But you haven't changed your dress yet. Where is Emma? What is she going to be married in?"
"Be quiet, you little Bohemian!" said Laura, cutting short Electra's torrent of words. "Don't you feel that this is no ordinary wedding? The occasion, if not a sorrowful one, is at least very serious. Come, I will take you with me to my own room. We are to lodge together in the south-west room, as usual."
"But are you to be a bride-maid?" persisted the "little Bohemian."
"Yes; and to wear my white tarletan dress and white rose wreath," answered Laura, as they went off together.
"Where's Emma, and what's she doing? as I asked you some time ago."
"She is in her chamber, dressing for the ceremony."
"She hasn't got her wedding-dress made yet; that I know. What's she going to be married in?"
"She will wear her white satin trained dress, with white lace overdress, which she had made for the last May ball, you remember."
"Oh, yes! I didn't think of that."
"And she will wear that rich, priceless cardinal point-lace veil that was her mother's. And she will wear her grandmother's rare oriental pearls. There, you little gipsy! Are you answered?"
"Yes. And she will be magnificent and splendid, even if she is gotten up in a hurry," said Electra, as she followed her companion into their room.
Alden Lytton, under the unusual circumstances attending the sudden wedding, and in the surprise of his own unexpected happiness, had not once thought of the necessity of making a proper toilet for the occasion. But when he heard the girls, who never, under any circumstances, forget such a matter, talking of their dress, he glanced down at his own suit, and then hurried off as fast as he could to his room to improve his appearance.
While the younger members of the family party were at their toilets, Dr. Beresford Jones was in the "Throne Room," closeted with his mother.
Madam Cavendish, weak as she was, had insisted upon being arrayed grandly, to do honor to the wedding of the only daughter of the house.
She wore a rich crimson brocade dressing-gown, a costly camel's-hair shawl, and a fine point-lace cap. She now reclined very wearily in her easy-chair, and held in her hand the vial of ammonia, which she applied to her nose from time to time.
After a little while she said to her son:
"Go and inquire if they are nearly ready, Beresford. I fear—I fear my strength will scarcely hold out," she faltered, faintly.
Dr. Jones opened the door to go upon this errand, and immediately perceived that it was unnecessary.
John Lytton and Mr. Lyle were coming up the stairs, and the little bridal procession was forming in the hall below.
Mr. Lyle came in and spoke to Dr. Jones.
"With Mrs. Cavendish's permission, even now, at the last moment, we must make some slight changes in the programme," he said.
"Well?" inquired Dr. Jones, pleasantly.
"I was to have performed the ceremony and you were to have given the bride away?"
"Yes."
"Well, we must change that. Mr. Lytton has but one groomsman. I must act in that capacity also. You will please perform the ceremony, and Mr. John Lytton here will have the honor of giving the bride away."
John Lytton bowed.
"I am quite willing. I will speak to Mrs. Cavendish," said Dr. Jones, who went to his mother's chair and explained the situation to her.
"Certainly; be it as you will," she said.
Mr. Lyle then returned to the foot of the stairs and placed himself beside Laura Lytton, who was acting as first bride-maid.
John Lytton and Dr. Jones remained in the room.
The little bridal procession soon entered and ranged themselves in order before the minister.
Emma, as Electra had said, looked beautiful as a woman and elegant as a bride. Her bride-maids also were very fair to see.
The ceremony was commenced with great impressiveness.
Old Mrs. Cavendish listened with the deepest attention, leaning back in her easy-chair and sniffing at her bottle of ammonia.
John Lytton gave away the bride as if he were making a magnificent present at his own expense.
Emma Cavendish not only wore her mother's bridal veil, but was married with her mother's wedding-ring.
Dr. Beresford Jones pronounced the benediction.
And Alden Lytton and Emma Cavendish were made one in law, as they had long been in mind and heart.