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

| what did II matter now unworthy
were the preparations that had led up
| to this marriage If God was making
| Il? 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 1t by
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
full wife, according to the rite of our
holy Mother the Church., my husband
halted and stammered over his an
swer, saying beneath his breath, II
thought l was a hereto"
But when the corresponding ques-
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" ire
piled in loud, clear, unfaltering
voice:
II 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 l thee give; with my
BODY | thee worship, and with all my
worldly goods I thee endow," he ten
dered the ring slowly and with an OBJ
vious effort
B. took 1t without trembling, be-
cause / 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; I can not
account for it: l only know it was so,
! anu Ltldls ever ltAtli6 NOilsldClC -
was perhaps the strangest fact of all
! my life.
/ remember that more than once
during the ceremony Father Dan
spoke to me softly and caressingly.
as il to a child, but l felt no need
of his comforting, for my strongly
was from higher scource.
Like Prayer.
: I 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
riage was like 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 benediction
| Especial dispensation from Romeo,
and that raised to a still higher pitch
the spiritual exaitation which sus-
tanned me.
Father Dan read the Epistle begin
ming LET wives be subject to their
husbands" and then the bishop read
! the Gospel, concluding, Therefore
now they are not two, but one flesh:
| what therefore GCd hath Joined to-
gether let no man put asunder.
/ had trembled when l thought of
these solemn and sonorous words in
the solitude of my own room, but
now that they We're spoken before
the congregation l had no fear no
misgiving, nothing but sense OF
rapture and conservation.
The last words being spoken and
Lord Raa and / being man and wife,
we stepped into the sacristy to sign
the register, and not even there did
my spirit fail me l took up the pen
and signed my name without a ire
NOR But hardly had l done so when
heard a rumbling murmur of
voices about me-f1rst 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 trins of laughter. And then, in
a moment, twinlIling, as fast as q
4 snowflake melts upon stream, the
spell of the marriage service seemed
to break
l have heard since that my eyes
| were wet at that moment and |
seemed to have been crying all
| through the ceremony. | know moth
! ing about that, but l do know that
/ ! felt a KIND OF internal Shuuuer ana
! that it was just as If my soul had
suddenly awakened from an intoXi-
eating drug.
The organ began to play the We'd
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 We're like the back
ward plash of wavelets on the shore.
"Saxes alive. how white she's
| looking, though said somebody, and
| then somebody else said-I 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 l
| saw Martins mother at the back