her monogram in purple violets in the center.
She was leaning on the arm of her guardian, the chief justice, followed
by eight bridesmaids.

The bishop, with two other clergymen, in their white vestments, entered
and took their places at the altar. The choir struck up Mendelssohn's
wedding march. The bride's procession came slowly up under all the
floral arches of the center aisle to the floral hedge around the
chancel.

The bridegroom came gayly out of the vestry room to meet her, smiling,
radiant, tripping as if he had been a slim young lover of twenty,
instead of a tall and heavy giant of fifty odd. He took her hand, lifted
it to his lips, and led her to the altar, where both knelt. The
bridesmaids grouped behind them. The best man stood on the groom's
right. Old Aaron Rockharrt, Mrs. Rothsay and Cadet Haught came out of
their pew and formed a group behind the bridegroom.

Mrs. Chief Justice Pendletime, and a few intimate friends, came out of
her pew and grouped behind the bride and her maids.

The rest of the congregation remained in their pews, but stood up, and
those in the rear raised on tiptoes and craned their necks to witness
the proceedings. As soon as the bridegroom and the bride had knelt under
the floral arch, from the high center of which hung a wedding bell of
white wood violets, the bishop and his assistants stepped down from the
high altar steps, and opened their books.

The rites commenced, and went on without any unusual disturbance of
their course until they came to the question:

"Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?"

Her guardian, the chief justice, a portly, ponderous person, was moving
solemnly forward to perform this duty, when--

Old Aaron Rockharrt--not from officiousness, but out of pure simple
egotism--took the bride's hand and placed it in that of the groom,
saying:

"I do."

You may judge the effect of this. The bride was mildly amazed; the
bridegroom was deeply annoyed; the chief justice, the rightful owner of
the thunder, was highly offended, and withdrew back in solemn dignity.
Meanwhile the ceremony went on to its end. The benediction was
pronounced, and congratulations were in order.

The marriage feast was a great success, like most other affairs of the
kind. The chief justice had not got over the affront given him at the
church, but he could not show resentment in his own house, and on the
occasion of his young ward's wedding breakfast. As for Old Aaron