The future mothers stroll about gravely, with their sabre half-raised.

The agitation and feverish excitement means that the great business of pairing is at hand.

The fact will escape no practised eye.
It is also what I particularly wish to observe.

My wish is satisfied, but not fully, for the late hours at which events take place did not allow me to witness the final act of the wedding.

It is late at night or early in the morning that things happen.
The little that I see is confined to interminable preludes.