The St. Johns herald., 1897-09-18

It is noon on brilliant day in Christ
 mas week and consequently i'll the mid
 dle of the hot season. Outside the grass
 is beginning to look burnt up, and the roses and gerariums are too much eX- hausted from the heat to put forth any more flowers, but the hardy begonia is still in full bloom, and the oleanders have large punches of pink blossoms on the tops of their tall, willowy stems, which wave back and forward in the
 breeze and eXhale delicious perfume, like that of bitter almonds. In one cor ner of the churchyard large frangipani tree bears waxy clusters of pale yellow flowers at the ends of its cactuslike branches, while shining out among the foliage in the government house grounds opposite is a tall flamboyant tree, which, with its flame colored blos- sons covering the whole top of the leaf less tree, looks like a veritable "burn- ing bush.'
 Inside the church has been turned in- to bower, everywhere palms and ferns and sweet smelling white flowers. The bare. barnlike walls are completely hidden by mass of greenery, the win dow sills are filled with blossoms and the altar rails festooned with maiden hair and stephanotis, while the lower half of the east window is a perfect bank of ferns and flowers, above which may be. seen the clear blue sky, fecked with white clouds, and the tops of the trees.
 All is pleasant hustle and confusion within, for a great wedding is about to take place, and all the beauty and fash ion of the island colony have been sum- moned to do honor to the governors daughter.
 The ladies are in the brightest and freshest of toilets, while varied uni formsshelp to enliven the scene.
 Everywhere there is a buzz of sub dued, pleasant talk and of delightful expectation.
 The bishop is at the altar, the bride groom and his best man near the rails. The bridesmaids await the bride in the porch, and ill and out and everywhere among the congregation-arranging everything, showing guests to their seats, talking to every one and making himself generally useful and agreeable -fits the aid-de-camp He has been at work since before daylight and yet does not seem at all fatigued, but has pleasant smile or kind word for every one.
 Now the music strikes up, and pres ently the bride appears, leaning on the arm of her father The marriage serv- ice proceeds, the bishop joins the young couples hands, the vows are taken, the ring put on, the hymns sung and the address delivered. Then comes a mo- ment of silence while the newly mar ried pair still kneel at the altar rails, and when one can distinctly hear the champing of the horses in the carriages waiting outside and the signing of the breeze in the tops of the filOa trees. Then as the young couple rise from their knees there break forth the joy ous strains of the "'Wedding March. '"
 AS they pass down the aisle the bride looks up into the bridegroom S face, and he, stopping over her, murmurs some thing which only she can hear. The sees the look and guesses the words, and, with renewed energy, he plunges into the business of mar shaling the procession and escorting the guests to their carriages, and through out that long and busy day no one see ing his bright, pleasant face and hear ing his cheery voice could guess that for him the sun was darkened and the light of life and hope gone out, and that to his ears MendeIssohn's "Wedding March" will forever sound like funer- al dirge.