They had just time to fulfil her wish when the carriages drove up, and the bridal procession formed, and, followed by their bride's-maids, Violet and Eva passed up the aisle, in all their loveliness, with wreaths of myrtle and orange-flower round their fair foreheads, and long, graceful veils, and simple ornaments of pearl. Beautiful to see! A bride always looks beautiful, but these two were radiant and exquisite in their loveliness. Which was the fairest? I cannot tell. Most men would have given the golden apple to Eva, with the sweet, tender grace that played about her young features, almost infantile in their delicacy, and with those bright, beaming, laughter-loving eyes, of which the light could not be hid though she bent her face downwards to hide the bridal blush that tinged it; but yet they would have doubted about the decision when they turned from her to the full flower of Violet's beauty, and gazed on her perfect face, so enchanting in its meekness, and on that one tress of golden hair that played upon her neck. De Vayne, as he looked on the perfect scene, took out a piece of paper, and wrote on it Spenser's lines:-- "Behold, while she before the altar stands, Hearing the holy priest that to her speaks And blesses her with his two happy hands, How the red roses flush up in her cheeks And the pure snow with golden vermeil stain, Like crimson dyed in grain." He handed the lines to Lillyston and Owen, and they saw from the happy smile upon his face that no touch of regret or envy marred his present meditations. Has life any pleasure--any deep, unspoken happiness--comparable to that which fills a young's man whole soul when he stands beside the altar with such a bride as Violet or Eva was?--when he thinks that the fair, blushing girl, whose white hand trembles in his own, is to be the star of his home, the mother of his children, the sunbeam shining steadily on all his life? Verily he who hath experienced such a joy has found a jewel richer: "Than twenty seas though all their sands were pearl, Their waters crystal, and their rocks pure gold."