I am bound to say that Flossie’s brothers and sisters (and Sarah)
received the news of her approaching departure from her father’s roof
with unmixed feelings. Not a drop of sorrow was there to mar the cup of
joy which the occasion presented to every one. Not a regret at the
blank her going would cause leavened the general satisfaction at her
happiness. And Flossie herself was the least sorrowful, the least
regretful, and the most satisfied of all.
Like May, she was marrying well--that is to say, she was marrying money.
But, unlike May’s husband, who was old, her future lord and master was
young--only five years older than herself. It is true he was not much
to look at; but then, as Mrs. Stubbs remarked to her husband, that was
Flossie’s business. It was equally true that he was reputed to be a
young scamp, with an atrocious temper; but then, as Tom said, that was
Flossie’s look-out, and decidedly Flossie was not without little
failings of that kind--though why, if one bad-tempered person decides
upon marrying another bad-tempered person, it is generally considered by
the world to be all right, because the one is as bad to get on with as
the other, it would be hard to say; perhaps it is on the principle of
two negatives making an affirmative, or in the belief that two wrongs
will make eventually a right; I cannot say. But, odd as it is, that is
the very general opinion.
The engagement was an unusually short one. Indeed, the bride had barely
time to get her things ready by the day, and a great part of her
trousseau was not able to be ready before her return from her honeymoon.
But still they never seemed to think of putting off the wedding for a
single day, although it was fixed to take place just six weeks from the
day of the ball, when the engagement had begun.
It seemed to Sarah, well used as she had become to seeing liberal
expenditure, that at this time the entire family seemed to be spending
money like water! May’s wedding had been a very grand one, but
Flossie’s outshone it in every way--in the number of the bridesmaids, in
the number of the guests, in the number of the carriages, and the
servants, and the flowers, in the splendour of the presents and the
dresses of the trousseau, nay, in the very length of the bride’s train.
The presents were gorgeous! Mr. Stubbs gave his daughter a gold-mounted
dressing-case and a cheque for a thousand pounds; Mrs. Stubbs gave a
diamond star, and May a necklace of such magnificence that even Flossie
was astounded when she saw it.
So Flossie became Mrs. Jones, and passed away from her old home; and
when it was all over, and the tokens of the great feast and merry-making
had been cleared away, the household for a few days settled down into
comparative quietude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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