Lord and Lady Salisbury.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1474, 7 October 1885, Page 5 (Supplement)

Lord and Lady Salisbury.

THE COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE OF TUB PIIKSKNT PREMIER OF ENGLAND.

One gray morning m thu mid- I spring of tw<Mii.y-oight years ag<> there was a wedding m the littlu chapel at Alrl Hi!l, Brtrks. All Loudon know the ttriile. For throe seasons the belle of W('.Muiasfc<N\ for l-luve yeir.i the : < c-iule >ns wonder of society, Geonjima A.ld«ivon w h the brightest iiml fairest of the ladies of the court. But she was a coquette, and had drawn many lovers by the silken charm so well discovered by witchery and|Mae eyos and sunny hair. Many a wooer had wooed m vain, fop the daughter of Sir Edward Hall Aldoraon was an heiress as well as a beauty, and estate of beauty can demand. Of son « of the most selfish of the admirers, it could have been said that they were brilliant men and worthy of the m«»st coveted honors of royalty, and not once or twice the lady might have married well had she uofc had an advN.Rr who knew man as matt deserves to l»e known. Miss Opie, the rek'bi'.ited queen of society of ten or fifteen yo:iia before, was Gooigiana A-lderson's aunt and choperone, -and Alias Opie knew bettor than most women of the time how to distinguish between heart and pretence. She had kept the moths from her niece, but while she was .seeking an ideally eligible man her charge had given her hand to Robert Cecil. JVI is* Opie wa-sdispleasedas Cecil was not a man after her liking. Though tlu* son of an Earl ho was a younger son, and anything but popular with his family. There had been a puarrej and a fraternal scandal, and, to ihe horror of Hart field House, he liml to earn his own living. Beginning as a journalist, he had shown maiked altility till he wa» a regular contributor to the Quarterly. For three years he had boen m Parliament for Stamford, where ho continued to sit for fifteen years to come, but here he made no consequential mark. It was no wonder that Miss o|>ie was displeased with the match. With but few redeeming qnalites socially, the young man was at test a i ookworm, and so serious and quiet that he was esteemed dull. But the niece had felt the brain of the Cecils, and though nine out of ten thought as did the aunt, the nine and the aunt came to witness the ceriuony. It. was a matter of fact wedding, a? English countryside weddings are apt to be. Theie was the gay company filling the chapel, ami the white rlblion that kept the common herd of acquaintance from the chosen many of ihe family. There was at 10 the soft low notes of the " Wedding March," from Lodengain, the quartet of able-bodied ushers passing up the central aisle and parting the sikea berrier. There were two little girl < strewing the aisle with white flowers from their aprons, and four bridesmaids behind them. There was the bride on her father's arm with the Queen's bouquet m her hand. There wsth the groom meeting them a< the chancel-rail. There was Ihe ceremony, and the blessing, and the congratulations.