So they started away again and came at last to a little lonely church
set back from the road. It was a quaint little edifice, made of
irregular purplish stone. The moss had crept up on one side softly,
protectingly. You thought at once it had been built by loving hands and
that loving souls had worshiped in it. And you knew that under its
assumed and momentary air of expectancy it was sad in having outlived
its usefulness. Its door was swung open hospitably and the children
stopped to look in. Graham wheeled his grandmother close to the door so
she too could gaze within.
There were pews, empty, with worn cushions. A large stained glass window
with one Figure, noble despite the artist's limitations, had caught
lights and sent them down in long sapphire and amethyst fingers. A man
moved about the altar, changing from place to place a vase of white
roses.
"Is that the minister?" whispered Maizie.
Suzanna nodded. "Yes. He's going to offer up prayer, I think."
The minister turned and smiled at the children. He seemed some way to
fit into the soft atmosphere of the place, seeming to belong there.
Suzanna could not fancy him moving in any merely practical environment.
And while the children lingered, and Drusilla looked in through the open
church door, a man and a woman came down the road. The woman walked
slowly and the man had his arm about her in a guarding kind of way.
When they neared the church they stopped. Suzanna, turning, recognized
them and with a joyful cry she ran to meet them.
"Oh, Miss Massey," she cried, "and Robert. Are you out for a walk, too?"
The man looked down at her. "Yes, little girl. We are going into that
old church. Did you see the minister?"
"Yes, he's inside," said Suzanna. She looked at Miss Massey. "You've
been crying," she said.
Miss Massey tried to speak calmly, but there was a little quiver in her
voice. "Because it's all so different from what I dreamed."
"Come, dear," said Robert then, "come with me."
She seemed to take courage from his manliness and the truth of his love
shining forth from his eyes, and so she put her hand into his and walked
up the path with him.
At the door of the church they paused again. Suzanna who had followed
quickly, said, "This is Drusilla, my very best friend."
Miss Massey looked into the sweet old face. Perhaps she thought of her
own mother, for the tears came quickly again. "I'm glad to know you,"
she said simply. And then asked, "Won't you come in and see me married?"
And Drusilla answered: "Indeed, I should like to very much, my dear."
So Robert helped her gently from the wheel chair. He lifted small Daphne
upon the vacated seat and tucked her in carefully. And then they all
entered the church.
The minister came down from the altar. He had lit two candles and they
sent their wavering light out upon the small audience. The Man above the
altar looked down with infinite tenderness upon the pale little bride.
The minister spoke: "Robert, take your bride upon your arm!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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