THE WEDDING.

No more, no more, much honour aye betide
The lofty bridegroom and the lovely bride;
That all of their succeeding days may say,
Each day appears like to a wedding-day.

--BRAITHWAITE.

Notwithstanding the doubts and demurs of Lady Lillycraft, and all the
grave objections that were conjured up against the month of May, yet
the wedding has at length happily taken place. It was celebrated at
the village church, in presence of a numerous company of relatives and
friends, and many of the tenantry. The Squire must needs have
something of the old ceremonies observed on the occasion; so, at the
gate of the church-yard, several little girls of the village, dressed
in white, were in readiness with baskets of flowers, which they
strewed before the bride; and the butler bore before her the
bride-cup, a great silver embossed bowl, one of the family relics from
the days of the hard drinkers. This was filled with rich wine, and
decorated with a branch of rosemary, tied with gay ribands, according
to ancient custom.

"Happy is the bride that the sun shines on," says the old proverb; and
it was as sunny and auspicious a morning as heart could wish. The
bride looked uncommonly beautiful; but, in fact, what woman does not
look interesting on her wedding-day? I know no sight more charming and
touching than that of a young and timid bride, in her robes of virgin
white, led up trembling to the altar. When I thus behold a lovely
girl, in the tenderness of her years, forsaking the house of her
fathers and the home of her childhood; and, with the implicit
confiding, and the sweet self-abandonment, which belong to woman,
giving up all the world for the man of her choice: when I hear her, in
the good old language of the ritual, yielding herself to him "for
better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to
love, honour and obey, till death us do part," it brings to my mind
the beautiful and affecting self-devotion of Ruth: "Whither thou goest
I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my
people, and thy God my God."

The fair Julia was supported on the trying occasion by Lady
Lillycraft, whose heart was overflowing with its wonted sympathy in
all matters of love and matrimony. As the bride approached the altar,
her face would be one moment covered with blushes, and the next deadly
pale; and she seemed almost ready to shrink from sight among her
female companions