IN PARALLEL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1975, 4 February 1914, Page 8

IN PARALLEL.

GAIETY AND GLOOM. Two motor-cars were " quietly eliitgchugging at tho entrance of a Wellington church, and a coterie of ladies was assembled in the porch,.in shelter from, a softly falling fain. Their air of keen anticipation) and the waiting , motors, made it easy to diving the nature of the occasion. Soon another motorcar, with white ribbons stretched across the front, drew up at the gateway, and, from it alighted a bride-to-be, in a dainty silk and flowing veil. Confident of smrin, she was still, even at such aii _ important epoch in her life," not. uMnindful of the effects of rain., however gentle, oh such a dream of the dressmaker's art, and the gentleman. in attendance had good time .to tho church doorway. Coincident with their arrival there a hitherto obscured, sun shot a golden shaft along. "A good omen," tho ladies murmured. Under a verandah over tho way there was quite a congregation of iadies., who found in tho shower a very paipablo excuse for a few moments' pause on their way to the bargain sales—and they might just'as well have a peep at tho wedding party. Soon the strains of the organ could bo heard in the church, and a couple of tho groom's friends could.be seen tying old boots to the rear of tho bridal motor-car. The expectancy of tho band of spectators was at its height; the atmospheric .gloom had lightened; and through tho femimino minds was doubtless passing ttc words of tho old adage, when a real thrill upset such thoughts. Hound a near-by corner turned-a, funeral proi cession— it must pass at right angle's to the carriages concerned in that other-pro* cession of everyday life, Tense was tho spell into which tho watchers were cast, and through it all tho strains of tho organ • could still be heard pealing. What a tragedy if the bridal party emerged from tho church a.S that other solemn lino just completed tho rtglrt angle 1 * ' Exquisitely, agonisingly, slowly,: t'licV floWcr-ladeii vehicle of Death came along the roadway, a mute walking calmly -ahead. At last tho ehurch boundary was reached; then the sad file went past. The niuto cast but mio look at that spectacle of that other side of Life's affairs—and then with face and step unchanged ho passed along, piloting tho cortege's way. Acitter /beeai'no tho tension as each cab and trap of the mourners passed by. Would the dreaded climax—so. unhappy in its omen—'be averted? At list the- elsse of tho cortege passed over tho right aftglo area, and it had barely beeomo lost to. sight as, tho Wedding March sounding clearly, and amid a rainbow-hued sbowcr cf confetti, tho groom led tho bride te the Whitoberibbotted meter. Tho Pates had been kind. And tho small world of wome.nkind which had passed through, a thrilling' moment full of ominous, possibilities broke into an excited chattering, and then moved oiv to the City and its bargain sales,