Mr. Verdant Green has a dim remembrance of the party being marshalled
to their places by a confused clerk, who assigned the wrong brides to
the wrong bridegrooms, and appeared excessively anxious that his
mistake should not be corrected. Mr. Verdant Green also had an idea
that he himself was in that state of mind in which he would passively
have allowed himself to be united to Miss Kitty Honeywood, or to Miss
Letitia Jane Morkin (who was one of Miss Patty's bridesmaids), or to
Mrs. Hannah More, or to the Hottentot Venus, or to any one in the
female shape who might have thought proper to take his bride's place.
Mr. Verdant Green also had a general recollection of making
responses, and feeling much as he did when in for his ~viva voce~
examination at college; and of experiencing a difficulty when called
upon to place the ring on one of the fingers of the white hand held
forth to him, and of his probable selection of the thumb for the
ring's resting place, had not the bride considerately poked out the
proper finger, and assisted him to place the golden circlet in its
assigned position. Mr. Verdant Green had also a misty idea that the
service terminated with kisses, tears, and congratulations; and, that
there was a great deal of writing and signing of names in two
documentary-looking books; and that he had mingled feelings that it
was all over, that he was made very happy, and that he wished he
could forthwith project himself into the middle of the next week.
[312 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]
Mr. Verdant Green had also a dozy idea that he was guided into a
carriage by a hand that lay lovingly upon his arm; and, that he shook
a variety of less delicate hands that there were thrust out to him in
hearty northern fashion; and, that the two cracked old bells of
Lasthope Church made a lunatic attempt to ring a wedding peal, and
only succeeded in producing music like to that which attends the
hiving of bees; and, that he jumped into the carriage, amid a burst
of cheering and God-blessings; and, that he heard the carriage-steps
and door shut to with a clang; and that he felt a sensation of being
whirled on by moving figures, and sliding scenery; and, that he found
the carriage tenanted by one other person, and that person, his WIFE.
"My darling wife! My dearest wife! My own wife!" It was all that his
heart could find to say. It was sufficient, for the present, to ring
the tuneful changes on that novel word, and to clasp the little hand
that trembled under its load of happiness, and to press that little
magic circle, out of which the necromancy of Marriage should conjure
such wonders and delights.
The wedding breakfast - which was attended, among others, by Mr. and
Mrs. Poletiss (~nee~ Morkins), and by Charles Larkyns and his wife,
who was now
"The mother of the sweetest little maid
That ever crow'd for kisses,"-
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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