Christian fiction; Domestic fiction; Families -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
For the bride herself had decked the church with the aid of her
bridegroom and her brother and Grace Kendall. The lace-like boughs of
tall hemlocks drooped back of the altar, and smothered the pulpit;
and against it rose a waving field of daisies with grasses softly
blending. The little field-flowers were arranged in concealed glass
jars of water so that they kept fresh and beautiful, and were so
massed that they seemed to be growing there. All about the choir
gallery the daisies were massed, a bit of nature transplanted to the
quiet temple. Every one exclaimed softly on entering the church at
the wonderful effect of the feathery, starry beauty. It was as if a
bit of the out-of-door world had crept into the sanctuary to grace
the occasion. God’s world and God’s flowers of the field.
There were not many mighty among the guests. A choice few of the
Maxwell and Copley connection and friends; the rest were new
acquaintances, of all stations in life, all trades and professions,
many humble worshippers in the church whom Cornelia and Maxwell had
come to respect and love.
The two mothers came in together, and sat down side by side, attended
by Harry and his father. Harry had most strenuously objected to being
of the wedding party when it was suggested. He said he “couldn’t see
making a monkey of himself, all dolled up, going up the church aisle
to music.”
Grace Kendall was at the organ, of course, and above the
daisy-bordered gallery the Christian Endeavor choir girls all in
white, with wreaths of green leaves in their hair, sang the bridal
chorus; and from the doors at either side of the front of the church
there filed forth the bridesmaids and the ushers. The bridesmaids
were led by Louise as maid of honor, with a wreath of daisies among
her curls and a garland of daisies trailing down from her left
shoulder over the little white organdie that made her look like a
young angel. Carey as best man led the ushers, who were four warm
friends of Maxwell’s; and on either side of the altar they waited,
facing toward the front door as Cornelia and Maxwell came arm in arm
up the middle aisle together.
It was all quite natural and simple, though the bridesmaids were
disappointed at the lack of display and the utter disregard of
convention and precedent.
The minister spoke the service impressively, and added a few words
of his own that put the ceremony quite out of the ordinary; and his
prayer seemed to bring God quite near among them, as if He had come
especially to bless this union of His children. Mother Maxwell’s
heart suddenly overflowed with happy tears, and the four bridesmaids
glanced furtively and knowingly at one another beneath their garlands
of daisies, as if to say, “It is religion, after all; and this is
where she got it”; and then they began to listen and to wonder for
themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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