The Wildfire Club - The Emma Hardinge Britten Archive

THE WITCH OF LOWENTHAL. 253
much provoked as perplexed at what he called her intrusive
pertinacity.
The wedding day at length arrived, however, and though
the silent, phantom.J.ike Gertrude was a necessary appendage
to all the day's movements, the husband triumphantly
reflected that the hour of this triune association must at
length cease. . Great, therefore, was his chagrin, and even
indignation, when he found that even in the bridal chamber
itself, a veiled alcove had been set apart for the occupation
of the inseparable companion. Remonstrances,
prayers, and even threats were resorted to by the incensed
bridegroom in vain. The young baroness declared, with
floods of tears, that she had never been separated from her
foster sister from her birth - that her very life depended
on her presence, and that if, in short, the trinity must be
broken up, the separation must be between the married,
not the single pair.
Finding both bride and friend, and, stranger still, the
father, too, inflexible, the puzzled lord had to endure this
now hated companionship as best he could.
The young baroness protested that from a cbild she had
always been vastly terrified of "evil spirits;" many were
known to linger round the castle; strange sigbts and flitting
forms had been seen within its halls and chambers;
low moans and dismal noises, too, were heard; the tables
moved unbidden, doors shut and opened; and, as witches
were known to be abroad, and many trials in this very
district had lately given victims to the flames, so the lady
argued that Gertrude, by her superior sanctity and courage,
had ever been her shield against this much dreaded influence,
and must continue still, unless her lord desired to
part 'with her or lose her life.
Unsatisfactory as this explanation was, the young man
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