fix and the massive candles
on either side, which are always seen in the Lutheran churches; and in
the aisle below the chancel stood a square altar, covered with another
spread of purple velvet, heavy with gold fringe and embroidery. Two
chairs were side by side just in front of the high altar, and facing
it. Six chairs facing the audience were on the platform on each side
of the altar, directly in front of the mass of green I have described.
Below the steps to the chancel about twenty chairs were placed on each
side of the central aisle, and facing the altar. In each chair was a
printed slip containing a hymn to be sung after the ceremony. About
four o'clock a maid came in with the little granddaughter who on
Christmas eve had spoken the poem at the lighting of the family
Christmas-tree. When they were seated, the handsome little face, with
its white bonnet and cloak, was seen in a side pew very near the
altar. It seemed so like a dream,--the announcement of the engagement
of "the little Fraeulein" at that Christmas party; and now the time has
come when the bride is to belong to her mother and her home no more!

Ladies had long ceased looking impatiently at their watches, and were
perhaps busy with their thoughts, as I was, when from the "mittel"
door Court-preacher Frommel entered, his long white hair thrown back,
and crossed through the transverse aisle to the robing-room opposite.
Soon a signal given by an usher to the organist was the prelude to
solemn music, which filled the church; and a stout clerical
assistant, with a book under his arm, appeared at the rear door. Then
Pastor Frommel, in his black robe and simple white muslin bands, took
his place before the high altar and bowed in prayer, the two immense
candles in tall candlesticks on either side the altar, now lighted,
throwing their radiance on his silver hair. Meantime the bridal
procession slowly moved down the side aisle toward the middle of the
church, turned at the transverse aisle, crossed to the centre, turned
again, now toward the altar, passing to it up the central aisle. The
clerical personage with the service-book under his arm passed first.
Then came the bride on the arm of the groom. There were a few
orange-buds hidden here and there in the fluffy mass of her front
hair; a veil of tulle was fastened behind them in a gathered coronet,
and fell down over the folds of her white silk dress, whose train
swept along the aisle to the length of a yard