She had followed Lovelace to the parlors after his startling communication to her in wild excitement, and had swooned on beholding his fall, recovering from one long spell only to go into another, and actual fears for her life began to be entertained.
It was touching, said all, to see how devoted she had been to her step-son, seeing that the events of to-day would make her the mistress of his splendid fortune.
CHAPTER XXI.
WOULD HEAVEN TURN AWAY FROM HER WILD APPEAL?
"Oh, Thou to whom my thoughts are known,
Calm, oh, calm these trembling fears;
Oh, turn away the world's cold frown,
And dry these falling tears!
Oh, leave me not alone in grief—
Send this anguished heart relief!
Oh, make my life Thy future care!
Sweet Spirit, hear my prayer—
Ah, hear my prayer!"
Beneath the ruined wing of Castle Ellsworth were mysterious underground passages and chambers, and in one of these grewsome places Dainty Chase was held a prisoner, while over her head, in the golden light of the summer day, the stirring events of the interrupted wedding were in progress.
While wrapped in the unconsciousness of a drugged sleep the night previous, the hapless girl had been borne away from her mother's side in the arms of the person who had so successfully enacted the part of the monk's ghost, and placed on a couch, where she slept on heavily till the day was far advanced toward its meridian.
She woke at last in semi-darkness, lighted only by the dim rays of a sputtering kerosene lamp, whose vile odor made the close air almost insufferable.
"Mamma!" she murmured, stretching out her arms for the beloved one who had slumbered by her side all night.