Daily Kennebec journal., 1895-01-23

amid the medley of wheels, horses and
shouting drivers. The noise Jared
Rosalys' head, and she began to be
feverishly anxious.
The church stood in the neighbor-
hood of a great meat market, and the
pavement was crowded by men in blue
linen blouses, their clothes sprinkled
with crimson stains. The young girl
gave a shiver of disgust. How revolt
ing it must be to have a butcher for a
husband They can't have hearts like
other men What a gloomy
part of London this is to be married in,
Jim.
''Ah-yes! Everything looks gloomy
with the east wind blowing. Now,
here we are. Jump out, little woman"
He handed money to the driver, who
went off with the most cursory
thoughts of the part that he had played
in this little excursion of palpitating
pair into the unknown.
Jimmy, darling; oughtn't you, or
one of us, to have lived here for fifteen
days?r she said, as they entered the
fine old Norman porch, to which she
was quite blind in her preoccupation.
Durrant laughed. II have declared
that l did," he answered, cody. Il
hope in the circumstances that it's a
forgivable lie. Cheer up, Rosalys; don't
all of sudden look so solemn"
There were tears IN her eyes. The
gravity of the step she was about to
take had begun to frightcn her.
They had some time to wait before
the clergyman condescended to come
out of the vestry and perform the cere-
mcny which was to unite her to Jim.
Two or three other couples were also
in the church on the same errand; q
haggard woman in tawdry white
bonnet hanging on to the arm of a
short. crimson faced man, who had evi-
IDENTIFY been rcplenishing his inside
with gin to nerve himself to the re-
quired pitch for the ordeal: girl with
q coarse, hard face, accompanied by a
slender youth in shabby black; q tall
man of refined aspect, in very poor
clothes, whose hollow cough shook his
thin shoulders and chest, and told his
bride that her happiness, such as it
was, would probably last but the brief
est space.
RosaIys glanced absently at the beau
tiful building, with its Norman apse
and transverse arches of horseshoe
form, and the massive curves and cush-
ion capitals that supported the tower
end; the whole impression left by the
church being one Of singular harmony,
loveliness, and above all, ,rcpose-which
struck even her by its great contrast
with her experiences just then. AS the
clergyman emerged from the vestry a
shaft of sunlight smote the altar,
touched the quaint tomb where the
founder of the building lay in his
dreamless sleep, and quivered on the
darned clothes of the consumptive
bridegroom.
Jim and Rosalys moved forward, and
The light shone for moment, too, upon
his yellow hair and handsome face. To
the woman who loved him it seemed
that: From the crown of his head even
to the sole of his foot there was no blem-
ish in him."
The curate looked sharply at the
four couples; angrily, Rosalys fancicd,
at her. But it was only because the
east wind had given him an acute
toothache that his gaze was severe and
his reading spiritless.
The four couples having duly con-
tracted their inviolable unities, and
slowly gone their ways through the
porch, Jim and Rosalys adjourned TO a
fashionable hotel on the Embankment,
where in a room all to themselves they
had luncheon, over which Rosalys pre-
sided with quite a housewifely air.
"When shall l see you again? he
said, as he put her into cab two or
three hours later on in the afternoon
'You must arrange all that, Jim.
Somehow / feel SO dreadfully sad and
sinful now, all of a sudden! Have l
been wicked? / don't know"
Suddenly her tone changed as she
met his passionate gaze, and she said,
very low, with lump in her throat:
80 my dear, darling! Icare for moth
ing in the whole wide world, now that
belong to your"