The Shoulders of Atlas: A NovelFreeman, Mary Eleanor Wilkins
General
The Shoulders of Atlas: A Novel
Freeman, Mary Eleanor Wilkins
New England -- Fiction
It is odd how individuality will uprear itself before its own
consciousness, in the most adverse circumstances. Few in all the
company invited to the wedding wasted a thought upon Albion Bennet
and Lucinda Hart, but both felt as if they were the principal figures
of it all. Lucinda really did merit attention. She had taken another
role upon her stage of life. The change in her appearance savored of
magic. Albion kept looking at her as if he doubted his very eyes.
Lucinda did not wear the black silk which she had made for the
occasion. She had routed out an old lavender satin, which she had
worn years ago and had laid aside for mourning when her father died.
It was made in one of those quaint styles which defy fashion. Lucinda
had not changed as to her figure. She hesitated a little at the
V-shape of the neck. She wondered if she really ought not to fill
that in with lace, but she shook her head defiantly, and fastened
around her neck a black velvet ribbon with a little pearl pin. Then
she tucked Albion's violets in the lavender satin folds of her waist.
Her hair was still untouched with gray, and she had spoken the truth
when she had said she could arrange it like a girl. She had puffed it
low over her temples and given it a daring twist in the back.
Albion fairly gasped when he saw her. "Lord!" said he, "why ain't you
been for candy and soda to the store, too?"
Few people at the wedding noticed Lucinda and Albion, but they
noticed each other to that extent that all save themselves seemed
rather isolated from them. Albion whispered to Lucinda that she would
make a beautiful bride, and she looked up at him, and they were in
love.
They stood well back. Neither Lucinda nor Albion were pushing.
Lucinda considered that her wonderful city boarders belonged in the
front ranks, and Albion shared her opinion. It was a beautiful
wedding. The old house was transformed into a bower with flowers and
vines. Musicians played in the south room, which was like a grove
with palms. There was a room filled with the wedding-presents, and
the glitter of cut glass and silver seemed almost like another
musical effect.
The wedding was to be at eight o'clock. Everybody was there before
that time. Meeks and Henry stood together in the hall by the spiral
staircase, which was wound with flowers and vines. Henry wore a
dress-suit for the first time in his life. Meeks wore an ancient one,
in which he moved gingerly. "I believe I weigh fifty pounds more than
I did when the blamed thing was made," he said to Henry, "and the
broadcloth is as thin as paper. I'm afraid to move."
Henry looked very sober. "What's the matter, Henry?" asked Sidney.
"It's Sylvia."
"Sylvia? I thought--"
"Yes, I thought, too, that she had got what was on her mind off it,
but she hasn't. I don't know what ails her. She ain't herself. I'm
worried to death about her."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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