Lizzie was necessarily one of the bridesmaids--that highly necessary _corps d'armee_, without which no bride of any pretensions will allow herself to be conducted to Hymen's sacrificial font. Carry, the bride's sister, was another; and the places of the two additional ladies-in-waiting (for espousal themselves) were supplied by two distant cousins of the Inskips, who had already officiated in a similar capacity so many times that they had most probably made up their maiden minds that this was the only problematical manner in which they would ever officiate at a wedding. Some people seem doomed always to play second fiddle through life, and bridesmaids are no exceptions to the rule. The campaigner had spared no pains, as she had grudged no expense. All her influence, whether important or slight, was brought to bear on the contingent circumstances of the affair. By back-stairs beseeching she so worked round the maternal aunt of the Bishop of Chumpchopster, that the right reverend prelate was persuaded-- inasmuch as he had temporal expectations from the said maternal aunt--to accompany her to Bigton, and officiate in the tying of the matrimonial noose between Herbert Pringle, of whom his lordship was pleased to take some considerable notice, and Laura. The prelate and his maternal aunt became the honoured guests of Lady Inskip for a day and a night in consequence; but how on earth they were stowed in Laburnum Cottage, and what accommodation was provided for them, remains to this day a puzzle. "The blushing orb of day at length gilded the sky," and "Phoebus" announced the wedding morn. Enormous dressings of bride and bridesmaids. White and scarlet were the colours adopted, if you've a fancy for knowing them, although the campaigner had a strong leaning, which she subsequently quenched, towards mauve and yellow. Multitudinous errands and scurryings to and fro of "slavies" and domestics, including "Buttons" and several hired menials, now addicted to Berlin gloves, although displaying raw, beefsteaky hands in every-day life. Manifold preparations for the _dejeuner_, and consequent encroachments of pastry-cook's boys with superincumbent trays and oblong covered boxes with horizontal S handles; Laburnum Cottage turned inside out, and outside in; Bigton church bells clanging "fit to bust 'emselves," as the villagers said; Bigton upside-down--in a word, bewitched.