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 IL God was making
| IL? God makes all marriages that are
blessed by His church, and therefore
He overrulesto 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
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 l was a hereto"
But when the corresponding ques-
tton 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 loud, clear, unfaltering
voice:
Il 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 / 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 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; I can not
| account for it: / only know II was so,
and that. everything considered, it
was perhaps the strangest fact of all
! my life.
| l 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 | 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 benedtction
! 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 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 were spoken before
the congregation | had no fear. no
miSgiving nothing but sense of
rapture and conservation.
The last words being spoken and
Lord Raa and l being man and wife,
we stepped into the sacristy to sign
the register, and not even there did
my spirit fail me. | took up the pen
and signed my name without a ire
NOR But hardly had done so when
II I heard a rumbling murmur of
voices about me-first the Bishops
voice (in 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 trils of laughter And then, in
a moment, twinkling, 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. l know MOTH
ing about that. but | do know that
l 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 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 l saw ghostly faces
smiling at me on every side. and
I heard ghostly voices speaking in
| whispers that We're 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"
! did not look at anybody. but |
| saw Martins mother at the back.
and she was wiping her eyes and