He promised secrecy, and Orianna was left alone. The forest was dark with the shadows of coming night ere she arose, and then the heart which she bore back to the wigwam by Grassy Spring was sadder than any she had ever before carried across the threshold of her home. The next day Charlie noticed a certain listlessness about his pupil, which he had never observed before; and though her eye wandered over the printed page, her thoughts were evidently away. At last a happy thought struck him, and drawing close to her, he whispered, “I think _Robert_ will be pleased if you learn to read.” He had touched the right chord—no other incentive was needed—and from that day her improvement was as rapid as the most ambitious teacher could wish. Frequently she would ask Charlie concerning Marian, requesting him to repeat her name; then she would fall into a fit of musing, “When heard I that name? and where was it?—oh, where?” Yes, Orianna, _Where was it?_ CHAPTER IX. THE BRIDAL. Swiftly and on noiseless wing sped on old Father Time, and they who thought the summer would never pass, were surprised when o’er the wooded hills the breath of autumn came, bearing the yellow leaf—the first white hair in nature’s sunny locks. The golden harvests were gathered in, and through the forest “the sound of dropping nuts was heard,” showing that “The melancholy days had come, The saddest of the year.” It was the last day of October, and over the fading earth the autumnal sun was shedding its rays as brightly as in the early summer. The long shadows, stretching far to the eastward, betokened approach of night, and when at last the sun sank to its western home, the full moon poured a flood of soft, pale light over the scene, and looking in at a half-opened window, shone upon a beautiful young girl, who, with the love-light in her dark-blue eye, and woman’s holy trust in her heart, was listening, or seeming to listen, while the words were said which made her the wife of George Wilder. Scarce was the ceremony completed, when the light from the window was obscured, a shadow fell darkly upon Robert, and a voice, clear and musical, uttered words which curdled the blood of the fair bride, and made more than one heart stand still with fear. They were, “_The Indians! the Indians!_—they are coming in less than an hour!” The next moment a tall and graceful figure appeared in the doorway, and laying its hand on Robert’s shoulder, exclaimed, “It is _your_ life they seek, but Orianna will save you!”