The Cameron pride; or, purified by suffering : $b A novelHolmes, Mary Jane
General
The Cameron pride; or, purified by suffering : $b A novel
Holmes, Mary Jane
American fiction -- 19th century
Nor had she; but she would grow to them very soon, while even the family
gathering round and sharing in her joy began to realize how great a lady
their Katy was to be. It was late that night ere anybody slept, if sleep
at all they did, which was doubtful, unless it were the bride, who, with
Wilford’s kisses warm upon her lips, crept up to bed just as the clock
was striking twelve, nor awoke until it was again chiming six, and over
her Helen bent, a dark ring about her eyes and her face very white as
she whispered, “Wake, Katy darling, this is your wedding day.”
CHAPTER X.
MARRIAGE AT ST. JOHN’S.
There were more than a few lookers-on to see Katy Lennox married, and
the church was literally jammed for full three-quarters of an hour
before the appointed time. Back by the door, where she commanded a full
view of the middle aisle, Marian Hazelton sat, her face as white as
ashes, and her eyes gleaming strangely wild from beneath the thickly
dotted veil she wore over her hat. Doubts as to her wisdom in coming
there were agitating her mind, but something kept her sitting just as
others sat waiting for the bride until the sexton, opening wide the
doors, and assuming an added air of consequence, told the anxious
spectators that the party had arrived—Uncle Ephraim and Katy, Wilford
and Mrs. Lennox, Dr. Morris and Helen, Aunt Hannah and Aunt Betsy—that
was all, and they came slowly up the aisle, while countless eyes were
turned upon them, every woman noticing Katy’s dress sweeping the carpet
with so long a trail, and knowing by some queer female instinct that it
was city-made, and not the handiwork of Marian Hazelton, panting for
breath in that pew near the door, and trying to forget herself by
watching Dr. Grant. She could not have told what Katy wore; she would
not have sworn that Katy was there, for she saw only two, Wilford and
Morris Grant. She could have touched the former as he passed her by, and
she did breathe the odor of his garments while her hands clasped each
other tightly, and then she turned to Morris Grant, growing content with
her own pain, so much less than his as he stood before the altar with
Wilford Cameron between him and the bride which should have been his.
How pretty she was in her wedding garb, and how like a bird her voice
rang out as she responded to the solemn question,
“Will you have this man to be thy wedded husband,” etc.
Upon Uncle Ephraim devolved the duty of giving her away, a thing which
Aunt Betsy denounced as a “’Piscopal quirk,” classing it in the same
category with dancing. Still if Ephraim had got it to do she wanted him
to do it well, and she had taken some pains to study that part of the
ceremony, so as to know when to, nudge her brother in case he failed of
coming up to time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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