A procession of her lost relatives--father, brother, uncle, cousin--seemed to cross her chamber between her bed and the window, and when she endeavoured to trace their features she perceived them to be headless, and that she had recognized them by their familiar clothes only.

In the morning she could not shake off the effects of this appearance on her nerves.

All that day she saw nothing of her wooer, he being occupied in making arrangements for their departure.

It grew towards evening--the marriage eve; but, in spite of his re-assuring visit, her sense of family duty waxed stronger now that she was left alone.

Yet, she asked herself, how could she, alone and unprotected, go at this eleventh hour and reassert to an affianced husband that she could not and would not marry him while admitting at the same time that she loved him?
The situation dismayed her.