"
Joliet was so enchanted with this rare joke, laughing and clapping
all his nearer neighbors on the back, that I could not but accept it
graciously. For this exceptional day, at least, I must bear my eternal
nickname. Was not the maid now present whose dower had been hatched
by those well-omened fowls? and was not the dower now coming to
use? Hohenfels paired off with the notary, and discussed with that
parchment person the music of Mozart, and, what would have been absurd
and incredible in any Anglo-Saxon country, the scribe understood it!
Our party had to wait but ten minutes for the groom and his men.
Fortnoye, in a grand blue suit, with a wondrous dazzle of frilling
on his broad chest, looked a noble husband, but was preoccupied and
silent. His chorus supported him--Grandstone, Somerard, my engineer
and the others--in dignified black clothes, official boutonnieres
and ceremonial cravats: they greeted Frau Kranich with awe, and
bowed before the polished head of the lawyer with the parallelism of
ninepins. My little group of fellow-travelers was almost complete.
The young duelist, of course, was not expected or wanted. The Scotch
doctor, Somerard told me, had been obliged to fly to London, where a
mammoth meeting of the homoeopathic faith was in progress.
The great feature of the breakfast came on when every crumb of
breakfast had been eaten. Charles and the maid cleared away the table,
and the notary stood up to read the marriage contract.
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