Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-18
TO-DAY'S INSTALLMENT.
Thirty first chapter-continued.


were the preparations that had led up
to this marriage if God was making
it? God makes all marriages that are
blessed by His church, and therefore
He overrules to His own good ends all
human impulses. however sordid or
selfish they may be.
After that thought came to me
nothing else seemed to matter, and
nothing, however Earring or incongru-
GUS, was able to lower the eXaltation
of my spirit.
But the service, which had this eff
feet upon me, appeared to have an ex-
actly opposite effect on Lord Raa His
nervousness increased visibly, though
he did his best to conceal it by a
lightness OF manner that sometimes
looked like derision.
Thus. when the bishop stepped
down to US and said:
James Charles Munster. wilt thou
take Mary, here present, for thy law
holy Mother the Church." my husband
halted and stammered over his an
swer, saying beneath his breath, Il
thought l was a hereto"
But when the corresponding oues-
ton was put to me, and Father Dan
thinking / must be nervous, leaned
over to me and whispered, Don't
worry, child take your time" l re-
piled in a loud, clear, unfaltering
voice:
81 will"
And again. when my husband had
to put the ring and the gold and sill
yer on the salver Che fumbled and
dropped them as he did so, and FUN
bled and dropped them a second time
when he had to take them up after
they had been blessed, laughing too
audibly at his own awkwardness)
and then repeat after the bishop:
with this ring | thee wed; this
gold and silver 1 thee give; with my
body I thee worship, and with all my
worldly goods I thee endow," he ten
dered the ring slowly and with an OBJ
vious effort.
b. l took it without trembling, be-
cause l was thinking that, in spite OF
all | had heard of his ways of life
this solemn and sacred sacrament
made him mine and no ones else's.
1t is all very mysterious; | can not
account for il; l only know IT was so,
and that, everything considered, il
was perhaps the strangest fact of all
my life.
I remember that more than once
during the ceremony Father Dan
spoke to me softly and caressingly.
as if to a child, but | felt no need
of his comforting, for my strengtH
was from a higher scource.
Like a Prayer.
1 also remember that it was after
wards said that all through the cere-
mony the eyes of the newly welded
couple seemed sedulously to shun
each other but if l did not look at
my husband it was because my mar
rage was like a prayer to me, car
rying me back, with it's sense of pur-
ity and sancity, to the little sunlit
church in Rome where Mildred
Bankes had taken her vows.
After the marriage service there
was nuptial mass and benedictior
Especial dispensation from Romeo
and that raised to a still higher pitch
the spiritual eXaltation which sus-
tanned me.
Father Dan read the Epistle begin
ming Let wives be subject TO theil
husbands" and then the bishop reao
the Gospel, concluding, Therefore
now they are not two, but one flesh
what therefore Gcd hath Joined to-
gether let no man put asunder,
l had trembled when 1 thought OF
these solemn and sonorous words II
the solitude of my own room, but
now that they were spoken before
the congregation | had no fear, nc
misgiving, nothing but a sense OF
rapture and conservation.
The last words being spoken and
Lord Raa and 1 being man and wife
we stepped into the sacristy to sign
the register, and not even there die
my spirit fail me. | took up the pen
and signed my name without a tre-
NOR. But hardly had l done so when
| heard a rumbling murmur OF
voices about me-frst the Bishops
voice Gin such a worldly tone) and
then my fathers and then my hus-
bands, and then the voices of many
others, in light conversation mingled
with trills of laughter. And then, in
a moment, a twinkling, as fast as a
snowflake melts upon a stream, the
spell of the marriage service seemed
to break.
1 have heard since that my eyes
seemed to have been crying al
through the ceremony. l know moth
ing about that, but I do know that
/ felt a kind of internal shudder and
that it was just as If my soul had
suddenly awakened from an intoxi-
eating drug.
The organ began to play the Wed
ding March, and my husband, putting
my arm throug his, said, Come"
There was much audible whisper
ing among the people waiting for us
in the church, and as we walked to-
wards the door / saw ghostly faces
smiling at me on every side, and
heard ghostly voices speaking in
whispers that were like the back
ward plash of wavelets on the shore
"Sakes alive. how white she's
looking, though" said somebody, and
then somebody else said could not
help but hear it
Dear heart knows if her father
has done right for all that"
l did not look at anybody, but
saw Martins mother at the back,