Life — April 2, 1896 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

* LIFE: side of the aisle from that set apart for the bridegroom's family, in the suggestively antagonistic manner which is customary when two houses are about to be united. From his chalk mark by the altar he gazed rather unintelligently at the blur of faces turned towards him. Why should they all be staring at him?) Was his cravat slipping up over his collar? He remembered distinctly that everything was fast when he had taken his last look at himself as an unmarried man. Why should the blamed thing fail him now ? Only a hoarse but reassuring “You're all right, old man!" brought his wandering hand back to his side again, But why didn’t the music begin ? The vast aggregated stare of the throng in front of him gradually resolved itself into its elements, It struck him that everyone seemed remarkably solemn, as if it were an occasion for sadness rather than for smiles, Why couldn't they look pleasant about it? Then it occurred to him that he felt solemn himself, and the cheerful and sympathetic grin on the face of one of his still-bachelor classmates, whom he had sud- denly discovered, seemed decidedly out of place and frivolous. But none the less something seemed required of him. Should he grin back, or should he merely wink in acknowl- edgment? The rehearsal had not prepared him for this emergenc: He shirked the responsibility of deciding and AND WANTS IT looked away. There in the second pew was the bride’s mother. It flashed into his mind that he, the hitherto free and untrammeled he, was on A STUDY IN NERVES. SMALL door at the right of the pulpit opened, at first tentatively, then with the energy of a nervous crisis, and he walked to his place before the altar. It had already been indicated by an inconspicuous chalk mark on the floor. His best man fol- lowed a little behind him at an interval which had required frequent rehearsing the even- ing before, He did not catch his chalk mark for an instant, and overstepped it, but he retreated fcau- tiously, still facing the enemy, and care- AND GETS IT. fully covered it with his left foot. People had been pouring into the church for the last half hour, and the lot of the immaculate ushers had become a less and less happy one as the throng at the door increased. It soon became absolutely im- possible for any of them to find a moment to consult their lists. The bride's mother had made them up.after the presents had finally stopped coming, and it caused her the keenest disappointment, as she came down the aisle at the end of the ceremony, to see with what demo- cratic disregard “silver” guests had been escorted to “* miscellaneous " pews, while horror as at a sacrilege came over her asshe beheld with what frequency the opposite mistake had been made. At last all those who had been invited had been given the front seats on the aisle which they required, and those who had simply come had found their way to the crowded galleries, There was a slight flutter in the audience when the bride's mother and her two married sisters were escorted to their seats on the opposite Comicbooks.com