The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 365: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

348 REYNOLDS’ WORKS to bestow my name. She was indeed handsome, very hand- ~ some. Do not be jealous, Constance, at the observation I have made, for while doing Justice to her personal appear- ance, | may with equal candour declare that hers was not a style of beauty adapted to my taste. “On this part of my narrative I will not however dwell. Suffice it to say that she appeared to treat the strange pro- ceeding with a coldness almost amounting to an indifference that was not the least extraordinary feature in the whole transaction, for I could not help asking myself of what nature might be the circumstances that rendered necessary so singular a matrimonial alliance. To bestow upon that young lady a husband who was to be no husband at -all, to give her a name which she might bear in the world apart from him of whom she had derived it, to make her a wife, yet leave her to a single and virgin state of existence, if chaste she really were and meant to continue, — all this seemed so monstrous, so unnatural, that I shrank from the bare idea on being introduced to her. There was not, however, much leisure permitted for meditation, because the Englishman hurried us all down to a plain carriage that was waiting in the courtyard of the hotel, and we drove off to the British ambassador’s chapel, which was at no great distance. I should observe that the ladies were simply dressed, with no conspicuous evidences that this was a bridal party. All the preliminaries for the solemn ceremony had been arranged with due care, so that on reaching the chapel we found the chaplain and clerk in attendance, and the proceedings at once commenced. I must confess that I experienced a strange sensation as I went through that ceremony. My conscience smote me with a pang resembling a remorse, for I could not help feeling that it was a veritable mockery of one of the holiest rites of the Christian Church. I glanced toward my bride, and observed that she was still as calm, collected, and even indifferent as if it were some ordinary transaction, and not one of the serious character that it really was. For in thus bestowing her hand upon me was not this young woman, in the vigour of youth and in the bloom of her beauty, suicidally destroying all hope of ever enjoying real happiness in the wedded state? In short, by this very marriage with me, was she not shutting herself out from the prospect of ever marrying another, however deeply she might be led CONNIE OO KS (E(0)