"Yes," he was saying with a heavy laugh, "I been to some mighty funny weddings."
"I never miss one when I can help it."
"There was a wedding down in Philadelphia I once went to where the groom passed out before the ceremony. That was a funny wedding."
"What was the matter?"
"Dry Martinis, that's all. We had to put him under the showerbath to bring him around enough to stagger up the aisle.... He got mixed up and tried to lead one of the bridesmaids up to the altar. It was a barrel of monkeys, that wedding was...."
Fanshaw was looking out at the bare trees and the rows of grey suburban houses. The smoke from the engine unrolled dense and white across the landscape against a leaden sky. Above the grinding rumble of wheels he could hear the two men talking beside him.
"I saw a man drop down stone dead at the altar once."
"You don't say."
"Dreadful thing... Heart failure it was that did it. The bride had just said about love, honor, and obey, when the fellow began to stagger around. When they picked him up he was dead. A good chap too, important in the Elks and secretary of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. It was a great shock to everyone. Marrying the girl he was going to marry had been thought the crowning success of his career."
"Funny time of year to have a country wedding, isn't it?"