CHAPTER XLVI.
"HOW SHALL I LET THEE GO ?" Mora passed swiftly into the banqueting hall.
"Hugh," she said, and came to him.

"Hugh, my husband, this is our bridal day.

Will you take me to our home ?" His eyes, as they met hers, were full of a dumb misery.
Then a fierce light of passion, a look of wild recklessness, flashed into them.

He raised his arms, to catch her to him; then let them fall again, glancing to right and left, as if seeking some way of escape.
But, seeing the amazement on her face, he mastered, by a mighty effort, his emotion, and spoke with calmness and careful deliberation.
"Alas, Mora," he said, "it is a hard fate indeed for me on this day, of all days, to be compelled to leave thee.

But in the early morn there came a letter which obliges me, without delay, to ride south, in order to settle a matter of extreme importance.