The Cavalier, June 1913

This issue of *The Cavalier* contains "Lucifer's Wife," a medieval romance novelette by Eleanor M. Ingram (author of "The Whirlpool" and "Shifting Sands"), appearing complete in this issue. The story opens with Count Bertrand of Falconmere, a gray-eyed nobleman with a fearsome reputation, intercepting a party traveling through his lands. Learning that Lady Gabrielle—betrothed to Sir Oscar d'Arsy—is among them, he claims her by force as his wife, not from love but from hatred toward her family. Despite her pleas and a priest's objections, the marriage proceeds. Gabrielle faints upon arriving at Bertrand's grim stone castle. Chapter II introduces Dick, the castle's lame falconer, discussing the new countess with Cedric Armstrong, Bertrand's lieutenant. Dick observes that a unwilling bride might find opportunity for revenge—hinting at darker possibilities. The narrative suggests complex tensions between Gabrielle's forced marriage, her love for Oscar, and the dangerous household she has entered.