SINGULAR SCENE AT A MARRIAGE CEREMONY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3727, 26 June 1883, Page 4

SINGULAR SCENE AT A MARRIAGE CEREMONY.

"A SLIP 'TWIXT OOP AND LIP." Oli, haste to the wedding I long to get married, For marriage is pretty, I've heard people say. So says the old ballad, and so probably thought the good man who led to the altar at the Star of the Sea Catholic Church yesterday his blushiug bride. The wedding party had mustered in good force. The friends of the bride and bridegroom had assembled to witness the sacred ceremony, and to scatter rice on the path of the joyous couple; their well-wishers had said that the union was suro to be a happy one, and it had been determined, in celebration of the auspicious event, to prepare a feast and make merry. The proprietor of the Albion Club Hotel stables had been applied to, and he, dear man, who always rejoices_ over a wedding party from the bottom of his heart, hoped that a long and happy life would Crown the union, rigged up v grey horse and a brown one, and set the happy party on wheels. The Church was entered in. duo course, and the holy father, arrayed in his robes of office, proceeded with the solemn ceremony, and all was going as merry as a marriage bell until the momentous questions were being put. "Wilt thou take this woman to be thy lawful wedded wife?" quoth the priest. '' I will,'' was the sincere response of the bridegroom. So far, so good. Turning to tho bride the question was put, " Wilt thou take this man to be thy lawful wedded husband ?'' There was a pause. Why this silence ? The priest gave an enquiring glance at the bridegroom. Ho in turn glanced at the sweet object of his affections. But her tongue -was tied, as if she were undergoing a severe mental struggle. The witnesses looked askance. But just as the question was about to be repeated, the bride spoke, with no uncertain sound, "I will not!" and so saying she turned her heels to the altar, and darted out of the church, leaving- the other parties to the scene standing there wondering whether they could bolieve their own ears and eyes. The priest had been brought to a dead-lock; his good offices could avail no further, and while he looked on the astonished spectators, out of the church went the bridegroom, accompanied by his best man, in pursuit of the fickle virgin ; but the bird had flown, and taken ambush, where, it could not be ascertained. There was no reason assigned for this extraordinary freak. No reason could bo surmised by tho disappointed party. Perhaps this daughter of Eve, at the last moment, preferred single blessedness for a little time'longer, to the prospect of connubial felicity dawning upon her. She evidently did not, at tho critical moment, think of the poet's words when he wrote— "Marriage, when rightly understood, Is to the virtuous and the good, A Paradise below.'' No. She preferred the retention of her maiden name to tho sacrifice of it in favor of another. Perhaps, " She would not give the hand Whore the heart could never be." —And if so, tho disappointed bridegroom had reason to congratulate himself. But this is not a question for us to enter into. Under all circumstances, the man willing to take that woman to be his lawful wedded wifo is to bo commisserated with as the victim of a grievous disappointment. That ho was prepared to honorably carry out his intentions, there is proof positive. Women nro queer creatures. They ever were fickle. Ou..ci old Queen Elizabeth was no exception to this f;uliti b . But when they love, it is ardent, sincere, ana n.., nation, with them is as strong as death. 'lno Anisode o f yesterday is but another illustration or +>, c old saw— If a woman will, she will, you may depend on't; If she won't, she won't, and there's an end on't. Poverty Bay Standard, Juno 13.