VANISHED.
After the withdrawal of the bride and her attendant from the breakfast-table, the bridegroom and his friends remained a few moments longer, and then joined Lady Belgrade and the bridesmaids in the drawing-room.
They passed some fifteen or twenty minutes in pleasant social chat upon the event of the morning, the state of the weather, and the political, financial, or fashionable topics of the day.
In half an hour they felt disposed to yawn, and some surreptitiously consulted their watches.
Then one of the bridesmaids, at the request of Lady Belgrade, sat down to the piano and condescended to favor the company with a very fine wedding march.
Three quarters of an hour passed, and then the Baron Von Levison—(Paul Levison, the head of the great Berlin branch of the banking-house of "Levison," had been ennobled in Germany, as his brother had been knighted in England)—Baron Von Levison then inquired of the bridegroom what train he intended to take.
"The tidal train, which leaves London Bridge Station at three-thirty," answered the duke.
"Then your grace should leave here in fifteen minutes, if you wish to catch that train," said the baron.
The bridegroom spoke aside to Lady Belgrade.
"Had we not better send and see if Salome is ready? We have but little time to lose."