But her poor, rheumatic limbs could not keep pace with Daisy’s flying feet. She could not overtake her in time to prevent the tragedy.
The bridal cortège was moving out from the gates of the hall, and some little children belonging to the tenant were throwing flowers in front of the bridal carriage as it started toward the church where the fashionable throng was waiting.
The clear moonlight and lamplight showed Chester’s face plain as day, as he sat by the side of the bride.
With a cry of reproach and despair that shrilled to heaven, Daisy darted into the road, and flung herself under the horses’ feet.
But Chester, sitting there, pale and handsome, on his way to his wedding, had seen that lovely face upraised to heaven as she darted forward, had heard that terrible cry, and it pierced his false heart like an arrow.
He gave an answering cry, and tearing open the carriage door, as the vehicle swayed under the driver’s frantic efforts to throw the horses back on their haunches, he sprang out and strove to tear Daisy from under their desperate hoofs.
The maddened animals dragged the reins from the driver’s hands, and their steel-clad hoofs came down with a dull thud upon Chester’s and Daisy’s bodies as they writhed on the ground.
It all passed more quickly than one could describe it, and almost before the people in the next carriage knew that anything was happening the ill-fated pair were drawn from their terrible position, crushed and dying.
The frightened bride, reckless of her white gown and slippers, sprang out into the snow.
“Oh, what has happened?” she cried, in wild alarm.