So he, though grave, and middle-aged,
and somewhat grey, divided attention and remark with his lovely bride,
and her pretty train of cousin bridesmaids. Miss Monro need not have
feared for Ellinor: she saw and heard all things as in a mist--a dream;
as something she had to go through, before she could waken up to a
reality of brightness in which her youth, and the hopes of her youth,
should be restored, and all these weary years of dreaminess and woe
should be revealed as nothing but the nightmare of a night. She sat
motionless enough, still enough, Miss Monro by her, watching her as
intently as a keeper watches a madman, and with the same purpose--to
prevent any outburst even by bodily strength, if such restraint be
needed. When all was over; when the principal personages of the ceremony
had filed into the vestry to sign their names; when the swarm of
townspeople were going out as swiftly as their individual notions of the
restraints of the sacred edifice permitted; when the great chords of the
"Wedding March" clanged out from the organ, and the loud bells pealed
overhead--Ellinor laid her hand in Miss Monro's. "Take me home," she
said softly. And Miss Monro led her home as one leads the blind.
CHAPTER XII.
There are some people who imperceptibly float away from their youth into
middle age, and thence pass into declining life with the soft and gentle
motion of happy years.
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