Where was the Bridegroom ?

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 215, 13 August 1887, Page 2

Where was the Bridegroom ?

An unusual spectacle was witnessed late the other night, in the St La/arc railway station at J 'aris. .V largo wedding-party of bucolic persons from Ennonb, a little town at some d^tanco from the French capital, alighted from that place at 10 o'clock The party was of the usu.^l French type, and such as may be seen any lino day traversing the <:lados of the woods of Boulogne and i V'n.vnnea, wherj) many Parisian honeyjin mmi.s are celebrated. There were the j!»ii'te \vith her orange-blossoms wither- '■ In, in tho chill night air, her father, i i«i >r'i-'r, cousin.^, and aunts decked out in j •_"■ i 'i>.y finery, bridesmaids in white dresses j i >n,!erod rather dingy by smoke and dust, j .mil the best man in a secondhand dress ! -lit, wearing the conventional w hite choker ! uul patont-leather boots a trifle too big for j mm. But where was the principal person ! ■ o tho party — the bridegroom ? The answer | could only be taken up by echo for that I m itrimonial candidate had been missing all 'lay, and Avhen, as in the famous hymeneal banquot of "The Ancient Mariner," the gue.-tri "were met, the feast was ■-et, he was nowhere to be seen. It appear that the bride's father is a farmer at Ermont, and his daughter was betrothed to a false-hearted joiner at Enghein-les-Bains. The marriage was to have taken place at ton o'clock on the morning in question in the mayor's office at Ermont. A sumptuous breakfast had been prepared at the best inn, and everything was ready. But the majestic mayor, encircled with his tricolour sash of office, waited in vain, for tho bridegroom never appeared ; and, weary of delay, the wedding guests ate their breakfasts in solemn silence, and then sponttheday going from Ermont to Enghein and backagain, looking high and low for the missing man. The ill-fated bride went three times into violent hysterics. The bridesmaids did their best to console her, and the best man sent scouts in every direction, but all to no pxirpose. At nine o'clock at night tho whole party left for Paris, in hopo of finding the bridegroom, or some tidings of him, at the Prefecture of Police. The officials on duty in that etablishment could, of course, do nothing for the unfortunate rustics, who had to return, slowly and sadly, to Ennonb by the midnight train.