The bard, half starved himself, sang the anguish of his own heart; the violins wept, the clarinet moaned, the cornet and the double-bass groaned, each reciting the sad tale of its poverty-stricken master. He began:-- "Silence, good women, give heed to my verses! To-night, bride, thou dost stand before the Uppermost. Pray to him to bless thy union, To let thee and thy mate live a hundred and twenty peaceful years, To give you your daily bread, To keep hunger from your door." Several women, including Goldy, burst into tears, the others sadly lowering their gaze. The band sounded a wailing chord, and the whole audience broke into loud, heartrending weeping. The bard went on sternly:-- "Wail, bride, wail! This is a time of tears. Think of thy past days: Alas! they are gone to return nevermore." Heedless of the convulsive sobbing with which the room resounded, he continued to declaim, and at last, his eye flashing fire and his voice tremulous with emotion, he sang out in a dismal, uncanny high key:-- "And thy good mother beyond the seas, And thy father in his grave Near where thy cradle was rocked,-- Weep, bride, weep! Though his soul is better off Than we are here underneath In dearth and cares and ceaseless pangs,-- Weep, sweet bride, weep!" Then, in the general outburst that followed the extemporaneous verse, there was a cry,--"The bride is fainting! Water! quick!" "Murderer that you are!" flamed out an elderly matron, with an air of admiration for the bard's talent as much as of wrath for the far-fetched results it achieved. Goldy was brought to, and the rest of the ceremony passed without accident. She submitted to everything as in a dream. When the bridegroom, escorted by two attendants, each carrying a candelabrum holding lighted candles, came to place the veil over her face, she stared about as though she failed to realize the situation or to recognize Nathan. When, keeping time to the plaintive strains of a time-honored tune, she was led, blindfolded, into the large hall and stationed beside the bridegroom under the red canopy, and then marched around him seven times, she obeyed instructions and moved about with the passivity of a hypnotic. After the Seven Blessings had been recited, when the cantor, gently lifting the end of her veil, presented the wineglass to her lips, she tasted its contents with the air of an invalid taking medicine. Then she felt the ring slip down her finger, and heard Nathan say, "Be thou dedicated to me by this ring, according to the laws of Moses and Israel."