[CHAPTER I.]
"Hear the mellow wedding-bells—
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness
Their melody foretells!"
"Hark! there's the wedding-march."
"Here they come!"
"Looks as white as a corpse, doesn't she?"
"Oh, no; as beautiful as a dream, to my notion. Pallor is becoming in brides, you know."
"He's a silly old dotard, though, not to know that she's taking him for his money."
"Of course he knows it. I dare say the old gray-beard is glad he had money enough to buy so much youth and loveliness."
"What a splendid veil and dress! They say her rich aunt furnished the trousseau."
"Her jewels are magnificent."