Stella Rosevelt — page 358: what you’re looking at

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

352 THE. MOCK MARRIAGE. and took their station by her side to act as bride-maids, and then Lord Henderson, clad in a long white robe improvised for the occasion, came forward and read the marriage sei vice. ‘When the ring was called for, the gay girl who had planned all this reached behind the bride and tucked one into Lord Carrol’s hand. He was strangely impressed, a feeling of awe, a chill, creep- ing over him as he felt it and thought of its significance. But he took it and put it on the finger of the mock bride, repeat- ing. ‘‘with this ring I wed thee, and all my goods endow thee,” feeling as if he were going through a mockery almost too hor- rible to endure. Josephine, too, trembled visibly, while the hand that he held was as cold as ice. She would have given the world to have been able to control herself, for she feared that the company would suspect some- thing of the tumult in her heart, but she could not. However, when the ceremony was over, the gay crowd came forward, brimmirg with mirth, and in the jollity that followed, these impressions in a measure passed away. There were laughter and compliment on every lip, shaking of hands and congratulation on every side, until at length Minnie Shelton put a stop to it by coming forward and saying : ‘‘‘The musicians are all ready, Lord Carrol; you’ll have to dance the first quadrille with your bride; I'll claim you for the second. Hasnt it been a lovely wedding, though ?—yjust as if it had been real, you know—and we've hail all the fun without any flurry. My!” perking her restless head on one side and eying Josephine out of her bright eyes like some pretty bird, ‘don't I hope I may make as charming a bride when some- body comes to marry me!” There was a general laugh at this sally, for Miss Minnie was a favorite with everybody. ‘*Now come, please; and, Lord Henderson, if you have ne Gomicbooks (E(0)