Étienne Rey

Helene has agreed to marry a man that she isn't in love with. On the day of her wedding her cousin arrives just in time to rescue her and they run away together. They stay with her aged grandmother who assumes the young man (whom she doesn't know) to be the new husband and has prepared a bridal bed for them.

Young Helena is reluctantly about to marry Brynolf, the chamberlain, when her cousin and beloved Paul arrives to stop the wedding and takes Helena to her grandmother's house. The grandmother thinks that the wedding has already taken place and that Paul is Brynolf, the chamberlain.