Page
followed the girls down the long aisle to the altar. Julia saw her
little old grandmother, in an outrageous flowered bonnet, and Evelyn who
was a most successful modiste now, and Marguerite, looking flushed and
excited, with her fat, apple-faced young husband, and three lumpy little
children. Also her Aunt May was there, and some young people: Muriel,
who was what Evelyn had been at fifteen, and a toothless nine-year-old
Regina, in pink, and some boys. On the other side were the elegant
Tolands, the dear old doctor in an aisle seat, with his hands, holding
his eye-glasses and his handkerchief, fallen on either knee; Ted lovely
in blue, Constance and Jane with Ned and Mrs. Ned, frankly staring.
As Julia came down the aisle, with a sudden nervous jump of her heart,
she saw Jim and Richie, who was limping badly, but without his crutch,
come toward her. The old priest came down the altar steps at the same
time. She and Jim listened respectfully to a short address without
hearing a word of it, and found themselves saying the familiar words
without in the least sensing them. Julia battled through the prayer with
a vague idea that she was losing a valuable opportunity to invoke the
blessing of God, but unable to think of anything but the fact that the
bride usually walked out of church on the groom's arm, and that St.
Pages:
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347