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Nathalie Duprez, who was desired ger to be seated, in the courtly wa his when treating with a lady. heavy veil which shrouded her fa her eyes to meet the manag glances-those wild, beseechin told the story of her misery their dark, silent depths. An eye of Hilton took in at a glan the stranger's appearance, an approving "Umph!" as he sur "She will do," was his "A face like that would m stage."

"I understand that you wis engagement as actress? I re cation. My name is Lawr am the manager of the Thes "Such is my desire," said sweet voice.

"Have you any referen oblige me with? Such necessary, to show that yo and as the part which you an important one, I shoul to be as good as possible

Here was an unfor Nathalie felt her heart she listened to the manag rance of business matter tained a thought of any her having acted before Should she tell this me could trust, the whole thing seemed to warn acquainting an utter st details. With a grea enough resolution to "I-I really was n

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choff He who, like Armado, has when quick venew of wit, aye by the salt of the Mediterranean," becomes now a ding, and his funny speeches somehow sformed into funeral dirges. The only who take things merrily are the servants, woop on the remains of the marriage bakeand get well drunken thereon; and the postboys, who do the same thing.

These must be something uncomfortable and etched, then, in the ceremony. That's my ditation from the text, and I will only add

emple more. Tis a well-known fact that the land of Fluellen and his leek, it takes a wile company of men to chase the flying bridegroom, to hold him tight whilst the ceremony

being performed, otherwise he would cerlyfy as far as he could from the Temple of Hymen

A truce to all this empty gibing. There are cases where in real earnest the wedding-day is miserable, from the rising of the sun to its guing down in the west. An old dotard of eighty winters "leads to the altar," so the fashionable cant of the day puts it, a blooming vietin of twenty summers, and people cry "God bless them !" over the happy pair, and the clergyman invokes the benison of heaven on their heads, and enjoins the hoary old man to love and cherish (ah, hideous mockery!) the shrinking girl at his side. "Love and cherish !"'-the words keep ringing in the victim's ears, as she helps her husband out of the sacred portal. Love and cherish aye, to be tied, Mezentius-like, the dead to the living, the young to the old, the strong to the imbecile, till Death (merciful Death) do them part. What joy and merrymaking in the halls of that demon who presides over unequal marriages, as he beholds the sacrificial victim all tricked out with silk and jewels-the price of the sacrifice-led to the altar for well knows he that there will be another couple enchained in his bondage, wherein lurks deep secret treachery, disgust too of the strong for words; where children grow unad with loving between parents with whom there has Caciul never been the empty pretence of love, and inof calefants are reared and nourished amid an atmothe prise sphere of false lies and deadly domestic vice. hangs But we must still ery "Hymen, & Hymenæe!" cough and wish the happy couple all the joy in life, all his and throw the lucky slipper as the carriage is state of whirled away, and affords another refutation to an they the text, "Crabbed Age and Youth cannot live serpent together." that the

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But the wedding chimes, as they ring their silvery peals o'er land and ea, this heavenly morning at Turiminster, seem to teach no such lesson as this, and the faces of all the people at the hail augur no such wretched results as we have been prosing over.

It is the day on which Ella is to take, "for better for worse," the husband of her choice, whom she loves as only a girl of pure, unstained heart in the full blush of maidenhood, can love-devoted entirely to his every nod and beck, the slave of her love, wilfully blind to his

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least half-a-dozen clergymen to heip one another in the service which begins with “ Dearlybeloved" and ends with "amazement." He, too, perchance, is thinking of some not far distant day when he will play chief part in a ceremony like this, and, accordingly, is very angelie in his demeanour, and interchanges subdued repartee with the bevy of bridesmaids.

For a man about to be male so happy, surely Lis face is strangely cooled and overcast, and Soon are the carriages arranged, and off to the tenor of his thoughts seem not to be: Turlinster, where everybody seems keeping brightened by anything like exultation. Per- holiday, and on the look-out for the wedding haps he is thinking of a certain morning long cortège, for the Stewarts are one of the first long ago—so long that the memory of it is but families of the neighbourhood, and great fadin and uncertain-when he stood at a mock vourites with the lower classes, and many a altar, bare a mock clergyman, and did, in the Stewart ere this had been returned for Turlsight of heaven and in cool blood, wilfully per-minster without opposition. "God bless jure hof, and did promise to love and cherish them" is the unanimous cry from the crowd En whom he knew he was devoting to who wait round the church; and “God bless affelong misery. All the actors in that them!" seem the bells to say in their most fescruel ceremony are dead now, save himself and tive tones, for the ringers have been allowed Nathale: ani, horrible thought! she lives only unlimited beer, and are doing unheard-of feats for vengeance-all her love for him curdled in the bellringing art. Surely the wedding, into hate, unrelenting, savage hate-all the under such auspices as these, cannot fail from etergies of her mind fully employed in working being a very happy one. destruction of his own future happiness, and that of the poor girl whom he was so soon to ink with himself in misery. He has had no chance to repent, he thinks-no “golden grace of opportunity" has been presented to him. Remorse, with its scourge, has tortured him fuil sorely; conscience has never been at rest within his breast. Long ago he learnt that the brother-officer, who acted the clergyman's part in this Masque of Death, had committed suicide, but he had previously received a letter from him, beseeching him to redress this foul wrong, and do justice to the injured woman, whose life he had thus cruelly blighted. And now the burden rang in his ears, "Too late, too late" He had commenced a new career, he had made another's innocent happiness dependent on him, and he must go on with it to the end.

Our friend of the Black Lion" is in great form to-day - hilariously festive in his demeanour, and willing to stand drink to any amount to those doubtful customers, to whose scores he would on any other day point with sternly-reproving finger. And many officers, drill over, stroll into the cathedral to see the ceremony, or, as Robson profanely expresses himself, "to see the happy man turned off! How festive the fellow looks! People always look that way before they are married, you know, but after "

The bishop, with his genial smile and hearty welcome, is there too. Old Stewart is a fast friend of his, and many were the wild bouts they enjoyed at Corpus together when lads, ere that the matrimonial bonds had confined the dignitary of the Church within due order; and, for the matter of that, he hopes to get a good Not very happy reflections for a wedding breakfast to-day, at his old friend's house, and morning-an evil omen for the voyage of Life, to be emancipated for a short season from the when the sky is thus overcast so early in the thrall of the wife of his bosom. Even the morning. But there is no help for it, thinks organist seems inspired to-day, and plays the the Captain; and with this philosophy steeling" Wedding March," as the procession streams his heart, he dons the wedding finery, and goes to meet the bride-the perfect type of a handsome, well-dressed, English gentleman.

"A proper man," say the bystanders, as they behold him. "A braw husband for the pretty mistress!" chime in the servants, in all ar wedding appointments; all but the footman, Jeames, who keeps a discreet silence, and, like the proverbial monkey, thinks the more.

Round Ella are gathered a most bewitching coterie of bridesmaids, each rivalling the other in good looks and gay dress; but she stands there, the fairest flower of them all-a flower well worth the wooing and the winning, and not a girl there but envies her lot, and would fain be in her place, little recking of the misery in store for her.

The curate is to assist, as it is impossible that a couple can be married now-a-days without at

on to the altar, with sonorous effect, making
the grand old organ discourse Mendelssohn's
jubilant music in the most impressive manner.
And, to crown all, the glorious sun streams in
through the beautiful memorial window, and
plays like a many-coloured halo of purple and
gold and amethystine rays round the fair head
of the trembling bride, as she kneels by Grant-
ley's side, and utters the response in a sweet,
low whisper. Would she obey him? would
she honour him? Aye, until the grave should
open for one or both of them, for "Love is
strong as Death." Would she be faithful to
him, come weal come woe?-would she cherish
him in sickness, in suffering? Aye, her every
thought, her every wish, should be for his hap-
piness. As the sweet devotional face looked up
through the veil of tears, and rested on
"chief of men to her," vows like the

into my ear; and what I say wrong, correctand what I say well, approve of.

the froth off. He who, like Armado, has when he likes "a quick venew of wit, aye by the salt wave of the Mediterranean," becomes now a hapless idiot, and his funny speeches somehow are transformed into funeral dirges. The only

Now, I have heard many men of my acquaintance unblushingly aver that their wedding-day was the most unhappy one of their lives; and this in cases in which everything was favour-persons who take things merrily are the servants, able-where beauty and wealth went hand in hand; when Erycina-fair, laughing goddesswas radiant in her favour; when Plutus smiled his substantial approval; and in cases where the after wedded life was as happy as a child's dream.

Let me try and explain this seeming paradox as best I may, and tremble the while lest an eye of heavenly blue gleam with scorn and contempt when it lights on this ill-fated page. Now why, let me ask the question-why on this auspicious day does every performer in the play think it exceeding proper to come down to the ceremony with a face of exceeding dolour, as if about to proceed to his immediate execution? To wit, the "father of the bride "-generally a very genial, pleasant man, with no great wit certainly, but "a merry man," like the Nurse's husband-is this morning as gruff and unpleasant as though he were going to act the chief character in one of those fatal "marriages of the Loire," spoken of in "Enoch Arden." In common life he can speak tolerably well, his words, though not eloquent, are to the point; this morning he essays a speech, and after a few melancholy grunts, breaks down, and subsides into the most abject misery. Then "the mother of the bride," dissolved in tears, crying when everyone expects her, and it is her bounden duty, to make merry, seeing that she has got rid of one more of her well-trained flock. As for the principal actors, who more nervous, and timid, and generally miserable than the bridegroom? It is the greatest trouble in the world to make him "come early," if in time at all; and then, so great his trepidation is, that he uniformly drops the ring, and produces an excitement of the least agreeable order, when Paterfamilias, utterly regardless of the sacred building, relieves his bursting mind with a few hearty anathemas. Who more tearful and fainting than the bride? Instead of celebrating her victory and capture of the prize with drums and trumpets, she inevitably hangs out signals of distress, and sheds tears enough to quench the torch of Hymen and all his attendants. The "best men" are in a state of comatose wretchedness: they flutter an' they were even birds under the eye of the serpent, for they know, each man of them, that the bridesmaids are speculating on the not remote contingency of a marriage with them, if wind and tide favours. The latter, I will do them the credit to say, are somewhat festive: they are attired gorgeously, and dress certainly hath charms to soothe the minds of women, and suffers them not to be fierce; and they are assisting at a suggestive ceremony, and women always like to be important. Even the funny man, on these wretched occasions, seems under a cloud; his jokes fall flat as champagne with

who swoop on the remains of the marriage bakemeats, and get well drunken thereon; and the postboys, who do the same thing.

There must be something uncomfortable and wretched, then, in the ceremony. That's my deduction from the text, and I will only add one example more. "Tis a well-known fact that in the land of Fluellen and his leek, it takes a whole company of men to chase the flying bridegroom, to hold him tight whilst the ceremony is being performed, otherwise he would certainly fly as far as he could from the Temple of Hymen.

A truce to all this empty gibing. There are cases where in real earnest the wedding-day is miserable, from the rising of the sun to its going down in the west. An old dotard of eighty winters "leads to the altar," so the fashionable cant of the day puts it, a blooming victim of twenty summers, and people cry "God bless them!" over the happy pair, and the clergyman invokes the benison of heaven on their heads, and enjoins the hoary old man to love and cherish (ah, hideous mockery!) the shrinking girl at his side. "Love and cherish!"the words keep ringing in the victim's ears, as she helps her husband out of the sacred portal. Love and cherish!-aye, to be tied, Mezentius-like, the dead to the living, the young to the old, the strong to the imbecile, till Death (merciful Death) do them part. What joy and merrymaking in the halls of that demon who presides over unequal marriages, as he beholds the sacrificial victim all tricked out with silk and jewels-the price of the sacrifice-led to the altar! for well knows he that there will be another couple enchained in his bondage, wherein lurks deep secret treachery, disgust too strong for words; where children grow unloving between parents with whom there has never been the empty pretence of love, and infants are reared, and nourished amid an atmosphere of false lies and deadly domestic vice. But we must still cry "Hymen, ô Hymenæe!" and wish the happy couple all the joy in life, and throw the lucky slip per as the carriage is whirled away, and affords another refutation to the text, "Crabbed Age and Youth cannot live together."

But the wedding chimes, as they ring their silvery peals o'er land and 'ea, this heavenly morning at Turlminster, seem to teach no such lesson as this, and the faces of all the people at the hall augur no such wretched results as we have been prosing over.

It is the day on which Ella is to take, "for better for worse," the husband of her choice, whom she loves as only a girl of pure, unstained heart, in the full blush of maidenhood, can love-devoted entirely to his every nod and beck, the slave of her love, wilfully blind to his

every fault, walking along the enchanted valley | least half-a-dozen clergymen to help one another hand in hand with her true knight. It is no in the service which begins with "Dearlyintention of mine to describe minutely this beloved" and ends with "amazement." He, wedding ceremony; oft has it been done before, too, perchance, is thinking of some not far disand by better hands. Let me linger for a little tant day when he will play chief part in a cerewhile at Grantley's side this morning, and mony like this, and, accordingly, is very angelic assist at his meditations. in his demeanour, and interchanges subdued repartee with the bevy of bridesmaids.

For a man about to be made so happy, surely his face is strangely clouded and overcast, and the tenor of his thoughts seem not to be brightened by anything like exultation. Perhaps he is thinking of a certain morning long long ago-so long that the memory of it is but dim and uncertain-when he stood at a mock altar, before a mock clergyman, and did, in the sight of heaven and in cool blood, wilfully perjure himself, and did promise to love and cherish a woman, whom he knew he was devoting to a life-long misery. All the actors in that eruel ceremony are dead now, save himself and Nathalie; and, horrible thought! she lives only for vengeance-all her love for him curdled into hate, unrelenting, savage hate-all the energies of her mind fully employed in working destruction of his own future happiness, and that of the poor girl whom he was so soon to link with himself in misery. He has had no chance to repent, he thinks-no "golden grace of opportunity" has been presented to him. Remorse, with its scourge, has tortured him full sorely; conscience has never been at rest within his breast. Long ago he learnt that the brother-officer, who acted the clergyman's part in this Masque of Death, had committed suicide, but he had previously received a letter from him, beseeching him to redress this foul wrong, and do justice to the injured woman, whose life he had thus cruelly blighted. And now the burden rang in his ears, "Too late, too late!" He had commenced a new career, he had made another's innocent happiness dependent on him, and he must go on with it to the end.

Soon are the carriages arranged, and off to Turlminster, where everybody seems keeping holiday, and on the look-out for the wedding cortége, for the Stewarts are one of the first families of the neighbourhood, and great favourites with the lower classes, and many a Stewart ere this had been returned for Turlminster without opposition. "God bless them!" is the unanimous cry from the crowd who wait round the church; and "God bless them!" seem the bells to say in their most festive tones, for the ringers have been allowed unlimited beer, and are doing unheard-of feats in the bellringing art. Surely the wedding, under such auspices as these, cannot fail from being a very happy one.

Our friend of the "Black Lion" is in great form to-day hilariously festive in his demeanour, and willing to stand drink to any amount to those doubtful customers, to whose scores he would on any other day point with sternly-reproving finger. And many officers, drill over, stroll into the cathedral to see the ceremony, or, as Robson profanely expresses himself, to see the happy man turned off! How festive the fellow looks! People always look that way before they are married, you know, but after

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The bishop, with his genial smile and hearty welcome, is there too. Old Stewart is a fast friend of his, and many were the wild bouts they enjoyed at Corpus together when lads, ere that the matrimonial bonds had confined the dignitary of the Church within due order; and, for the matter of that, he hopes to get a good Not very happy reflections for a wedding breakfast to-day, at his old friend's house, and morning-an evil omen for the voyage of Life, to be emancipated for a short season from the when the sky is thus overcast so early in the thrall of the wife of his bosom. Even the morning. But there is no help for it, thinks organist seems inspired to-day, and plays the the Captain; and with this philosophy steeling" Wedding March," as the procession streams his heart, he dons the wedding finery, and goes to meet the bride-the perfect type of a handsome, well-dressed, English gentleman.

"A proper man," say the bystanders, as they behold him. "A braw husband for the Betty mistress!" chime in the servants, in all their wedding appointments; all but the footman, Jeames, who keeps a discreet silence, and, like the proverbial monkey, thinks the more.

Round Ella are gathered a most bewitching coterie of bridesmaids, each rivalling the other in good looks and gay dress; but she stands there, the fairest flower of them all-a flower well worth the wooing and the winning, and not a girl there but envies her lot, and would fain be in her place, little recking of the misery in store for her.

The curate is to assist, as it is impossible that a couple can be married now-a-days without at

on to the altar, with sonorous effect, making the grand old organ discourse Mendelssohn's jubilant music in the most impressive manner. And, to crown all, the glorious sun streams in through the beautiful memorial window, and plays like a many-coloured halo of purple and gold and amethystine rays round the fair head of the trembling bride, as she kneels by Grantley's side, and utters the response in a sweet, low whisper. Would she obey him? would she honour him? Aye, until the grave should open for one or both of them, for "Love is strong as Death." Would she be faithful to him, come weal come woe?-would she cherish him in sickness, in suffering? Aye, her every thought, her every wish, should be for his happiness. As the sweet devotional face looked up through the veil of tears, and rested on the "chief of men to her," vows like these were

hers-" uttered not, yet comprehended," was that dear spirit's silent prayer ; and the man by her side felt for one moment supremely, triumphantly happy, and resolutely closed his eyes to the dark future, and lived but for the happy present.

And the congregation-they entered into the spirit of the thing completely, and the tears gushed from the faded, worn eyes of many an old maid, who attended there, and watched the ceremony from some dark, remote pew. I have often wondered what the fascination is that impels the hopeless sisterhood to such regular attendance at weddings. No matter where the nuptials are celebrated, there are the devoted spinsters to be found, with sympathising looks and eyes filled with tears, and in their hearts, perhaps, just one little touch of envy at the bride's happy lot (and who may blame them? They are but women, and, though their hearts be soured by disappointment and broken vows, have something womanly lingering about them still). Often do they fee the pew-openers liberally to be enabled to get a good view of the happy event; it seems to do them good, poor hearts, and who would grudge them that? I don't know whether the blacksmith at GretnaGreen has a maiden sister living; if so, I warrant you she never misses one wedding.

The Curate, I am afraid, assisted extremely ill at this ceremony. It was rather a trial to have to read the solemn words of the Church's benisonfover the nuptials of another, when they might have been his own. And with this they must be taken into consideration that he could not keep his eyes off Katie, and when she cried his eyes got dim too, and produced altogether many blunders. And now the last blessing is pronounced, in the good old Bishop's sonorous voice, and the injunction, "Whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder," and the happy pair, joined for ever and aye, make their way into the vestry, where the Bishop bestows on the pale bride a fatherly kiss, with a relish which would have done his wife's heart good to see, and then the signatures are placed in the great registry, and once more the great organ breaks out with a solemn march of Spohr's, and, once more answering the music, pealed out the mad jingle of the cathedral bells, with "Health and happiness to the bride and bridegroom!" in their silvery tones, ringing as many changes as could be produced out of the six labouring ringers. And sweeter far than the bells and the organ comes a heart-felt English cheer from the assembled crowd, led by sturdy John Smith. And so, amidst pealing of bells and sturdy cheers, the wedding party returns to Oakland's Hall, to be graced for the last time by the sweet blossom that bloomed the fairest there.

groom; so much that the good Bishop got very husky and maudlin as he rose to propose just one toast more-it might have been his feelings, all the same. I shall trespass too far on the province of the Turlminster Herald, and my dear friend Snarler will say that I write very much in the "penny book" style, if I dwell any more on these details. Let me only say that when that breakfast was ended, and the travelling-carriage ready, everybody was fully primed to the expression point, and those " uninvited guests," tears, were in greater request than ever.

A sturdy hand-clasp from the Squire made Grantley's hand tingle, as he said, "God bless you, my boy! You have won a jewel; treat her kindly."

66

'So help me, God, I will!" answered Grantley, fervently.

With Mrs. Stewart the parting was sore. Ella had been the light of her eyes, and she would not be comforted.

66

There, there, don't cry," said the old Squire kindly; "if they live as happily as we have done, I am not afraid for their future."

Once more a hearty cheer, and the carriage is whirled away and lost in a cloud of dust, bearing the bridegroom with his precious charge to the fair Rhineland, where they had elected to spend the honeymoon,

Let them be happy now, in Heaven's name! Let them revel in the blissful dream for the present: the time will come when the sun will have set on their happiness, and the bleak, cold moorland stretch its weary length before them— when the bride, who now looks up with trusting love into her husband's face, will dread the sound of his footsteps, and cease not to moan the live-long day, "I am aweary, aweary, and I would that I were dead." Let them go on lotos-eating for the present: let the wife of an hour hug the semblance of happiness to her heart, for "the end is not yet;" and let the good people who are left behind return to the marriage feast, and make exceeding merry over the remnants thereof, and deem that they have caught some reflection of the happiness that is taken away from them. Let them utter pretty sayings about the bride's good looks and her partner's life of happiness-surely for them, " where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." Let them cry "O Hymenæe!" then, with all their might; and whilst their elders drink the red wine and make well-meaning, incoherent speeches, let the youngsters bill and coo to their hearts' content, and whisper pretty things about the late affair, and wish that the time was come for them to go and do likewise.

In the servants' hall there is high festivity, and later in the day a dance will be proposed, when Jeames Jones will lead forth the fascinating Melia, the housemaid, and induct her into the mysteries of "Thread the Needle;" and there will be much meat eaten, and much strong drink quaffed, and many things sung and said peculiar to the servants' hall.

Why linger over the details of the breakfast? As many good things, and foolish things too, were said there as at any other-as much champagne was drunk from the tall crystal glasses, and as many healths and blessings bestowed upon the handsome bride and manly bride-don't imagine that, for all this, the Captain's

But

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