Aristocracy (Social class) -- Fiction; Europeans -- United States -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction
How was he to know that his quaint, unpretentious little church was
half-full of masked men and women? How was he to know that these
queer-looking people out there were counts and countesses, barons and
baronesses, princes and princesses? Swarthy Italians, sallow-faced
Frenchmen, dark Hungarians, bearded Russians and pompous Teutons! How
was he to know that once upon a time all of these had gone without masks
in the streets and courts of far-off lands and had worn "purple and fine
linen"? And those plainly, poorly dressed women? Where,--oh where, were
the smart New Yorkers for whom he had furbished himself up so neatly?
What manner of companions had this lovely bride,--ah, but _she_ had the
real atmosphere!--What sort of people had she been thrown with during
her stay in the City of New York? She who might have known the best, the
most exclusive,--"bless me, what a pity!"
Here and there in the motley throng, he espied a figure that suggested
upper Fifth Avenue. The little lady with the snow-white hair; the tall
brunette with the rather stunning hat; the austere gentleman far in the
rear, the ruddy faced old man behind him, and the aggressive-looking
individual with the green necktie,--Yes, any one of them might have come
from uptown and ought to feel somewhat out of place in this singular
gathering. The three gentlemen especially. He sized them up as
financiers, as plutocrats. And yet they were back where the family
servants usually sat.
He got through with the service,--indulgently, it is to be feared, after
all.
He would say, on the whole, that he had never seen a handsomer couple
than Lord and Lady Temple. There was compensation in that. Any one with
half an eye could see that they came of the very best stock. And the
little Baroness,--he had never seen a baroness before,--was somebody,
too. She possessed manner,--that indefinable thing they called
manner,--there was no mistake about it. He had no means of knowing, of
course, that she was struggling hard to make a living in the "artist
colony" down town.
Well, well, it is a strange world, after all. You never can tell, mused
the little pastor as he stood in the entrance of his church with
half-a-dozen reporters and watched the strange company disperse,--some
in motors, some in hansoms, and others on the soles of their feet. A
large lady in many colours ran for a south-bound street car. He wondered
who she could be. The cook, perhaps.
* * * * *
Lieutenant Aylesworth was saying good-bye to the bride and groom at the
Grand Central Station. The train for Montreal was leaving shortly before
ten o'clock.
The wedding journey was to carry them through Canada to the Pacific and
back to New York, leisurely, by way of the Panama Canal. Lord Fenlew had
not been niggardly. All he demanded of his grandson in return was that
they should come to Fenlew Hall before the first of August.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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