REJECTED AT THE ALTAR.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1160, 27 September 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

REJECTED AT THE ALTAR.

A cebtair Dean at Chester, England, | was called upon to perform the wed- I ding ceremonial for a pair of happy ■ fevers. The position of both parties i was of the highest rank, and. the guests who were bidden to the church were ■ of the most fashionable and exalted. The day arrived, and with it the hour. The edifice was packed and all was in ceadiness. The Dean, expectant, awaited the coming at the bride, and the groom, with his best man, was in the vestry. The hours passed on and still the bride did not arrive. After a Song delay she drove- up to the church door, and with her bridesmaids swept up the large middle aisle towards the altar. In the meantime the groom advanced to meet her, and receiving ter half-way, escorted her to the Dean. After the opening words of exhortation, the Dean turned to the man, and asked him the usual set of questions whether he would have the woman for his wedded wife, Ac., to which he answered “ I wilt" The question being in turn asked of the woman, to the nsromshmeut and amazement of all, she distinctly said, looking the groom in the face, “ I will not!” The next instant she said in a low voice : " Mr Dean, no one can more regret the words I have just uttered than myself, and if you will dismiss the congregation and take me into your vestry r<om, I will apologise, and at thesame time fully and satisfactorily explain what may seem to all my strange conduct.” The Dean, seeing that she was in true earnest, in x few words dismissed the bewildered congregation, and directed the bridegroom to await him. The congregation having departed, an ' the lady and Dean being together, she said, “ I cannot tell you how’ badly I feel. I had loved my Jianrr, truly and devotedly, and had looked forward to a life of perfect happiness and joy. This morning, as you know, I was late at my marriage ceremony : but it was not through any fault of mine 1 arrived as soon as I could. Instead of receiving looks of love arid words of full happiness from my future husband, he paralyzed my beating heart by saying, when he met me halt-way up the aisle, ‘G—d—you I if you expect to begin life in th is way by keeping me waiting for you, you will find out after you are my wife!’ My decision was instantly made. 1 have been told that sooner than suffer unhappiness through my own actions, it were better to renounce even at the altar a union that would bring misery and grief thereafter. Had I turned back he would have followed me ; there would have been a scene, and he might have persuaded me to return and marry bins. It also might have looked like temper, and 1 had Tully time during your few words of prayer to make up my mind. I know that I have disappointed friends, my family, but no one more than mvseli. Do not ask mo to reconsider mv late action. Inform my woidd-have-been husband of my determination, and let me go.” The. Dean, seeing she was resolved, could not but approve, and gently led her through the church hack to her anxious parents, not as a smiling wife, but as a woman whose present is shattered and whose future is blighted.