— XXV —THE BRIDESMAID INTERVENES
In the church was that miscellaneous collection of persons – mostly women – which haunts such occasions, regarding a wedding – anybody’s wedding – as a public show of a distinctly attractive kind. It was the general opinion that the bridegroom did credit to the proceedings. This view was given audible utterance to by more than one of the onlookers.
“’Andsome I call him,” remarked one lady, who carried a baby, to a friend who led by the hand a toddling child. “A regular picture. ’Ow tall he is, and ’ow straight he do ’old himself. And don’t that beard become him, and them blue eyes! And ain’t his clothes something like a fit!”
“Ah!” rejoined her friend, “there isn’t many of his sort about; I wish there was more.”
“There’s not enough to go round, that’s c
