"Come with me. We will settle this now and forever. I have but five minutes to devote to you. Step this way," said Gerelda.
The next instant they had disappeared, and Hubert Varrick was left standing there alone.
How long he stood there he never knew. His valet came in search of him. He found him at the end of the conservatory, standing motionless as a statue among the shrubbery.
"Master," he said, "your bride bids me say to you that you have barely time to get into your traveling clothes."
He was shocked at the horrible laugh that broke from Varrick's lips.
Had his master gone mad? he wondered.
He followed the man without a word, and five minutes later, with a firm step, he was walking down the corridor toward his bride's apartments.
But ere he could knock upon the door, it was opened by Gerelda. He offered his arm to Gerelda, and walked slowly by her side through the throng of friends to the carriage in waiting; and, amid showers of rice, peals of joyous laughter, and a world of good wishes, they were whirled away.
During the entire ride Varrick spoke no word. Gerelda watched him narrowly out of the corner of her eye, wondering why he looked so unusually angry.
They were barely in time to catch the train, and it was not until they were seated in their own compartment that Varrick ventured a remark to the beautiful girl he had just made his wife, and who was looking up into his face with such puzzled wonder in her great dark eyes.