Now and then one caught a glisten of tears through a widow's veil, and the little bride, dressed quietly in grey, talked with the usual nervous gaiety to her girl friends, and made the usual whispered confidences about her trousseau.

The father, in occasional conversation with one and another, appeared to be avoiding the subject with the usual self-conscious solemnity, and occasionally he looked, somewhat anxiously, I thought, towards the church door.

The bridegroom did not keep us waiting long,--I noticed that he had a rather delicate sad face,--and presently the service began.
I don't know myself what getting married must feel like, but it cannot be much more exciting than watching other people getting married.
Probably the spectators are more conscious of the impressive meaning of it all than the brave young people themselves.

I say brave, for I am always struck by the courage of the two who thus gaily leap into the gulf of the unknown together, thus join hands over the inevitable, and put their signatures to the irrevocable.

Indeed, I always get something like a palpitation of the heart just before the priest utters those final fateful words, "I declare you man and--wife." Half a second before you were still free, half a second after you are bound for the term of your natural life.