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

Thirty first Chapter-centinued
What did 1t matter how unworthy
We're the preps ra lions that had led up
to this marriage if God was making
IL? God makes all maria zes that are
blessed by His church. ard therefore
He overrules to His own good ends all
human impulses. however sordid or
selfish they may be.
After that thought came 10 me
nothing else seemed 10 matter. and
nothing, however Earring or incongru-
ous, 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
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, Il
thought | was a hereto"
But when the CORES onding 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" ! re-
piled in 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 One fumbled and
dropped them as he did so. and FUN
bIed and dropped them a second time
when he had TO take them up after
they had been blessed, laughing too
audibly at his own kwardness),
and then repeat after the bishop:
with this ring ] thee wed: this
gold and silver ! thee give; with my
BODY thee worship, and with all my
worldly goods ! thee endow." he ten
dered the ring slowly and with an OBJ
vious effort
b took it 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; | can not
account for il: | only know T. was so,
and that, everything considered, 1t
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 if to a child. but | felt no need
of his comforting, for my strength
was from a higher scource.
Like a Prayer.
: | 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 "A prayer to me. car
rying me back. with its 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 1 thought of
| these solemn and sonorous words in
! the solitude of my own room, but
| now that they were spoken before
! the congrega ton / had no fear, no
| misgiving nothing but a 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 ire
NOR But hardly had l done so when
; ! heard rumbliug murmur of
voices about me-tirst the Bishops
voice Gin such Il 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 tNvinkling, as fast as a
snowflake melts upon stream, the
spell of the marriage service seemed
to break.
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 | do know that
| felt a kind of internal shudder and
that 1t was just as if my soul had
suddenly awakened from an intoNi-
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 we walked to-
wards the door l saw ghoStly faces
smiling at me on every side, ana
heard ghostly voices speaking in
whispers that We're like the back
ward plash of wavelets on the shore.
"Sa>es 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 an that"
I did not look al ANYBODY. hut |
saw Martins mother at the back,
and she was Wiplng her eyes and