Happily the sunshine fell more warmly than usual on the lilac tufts
the morning that Eppie was married, for her dress was a very light
one. She had often thought, though with a feeling of renunciation,
that the perfection of a wedding-dress would be a white cotton, with
the tiniest pink sprig at wide intervals; so that when Mrs Godfrey
Cass begged to provide one, and asked Eppie to choose what it should
be, previous meditation had enabled her to give a decided answer at
once.
Seen at a little distance as she walked across the churchyard and
down the village, she seemed to be attired in pure white, and her hair
looked like the dash of gold on a lily. One hand was on her
husband's arm, and with the other she clasped the hand of her father
Silas.
'You won't be giving me away, father,' she had said before they
went to church; 'you'll only be taking Aaron to be a son to you.'
Dolly Winthrop walked behind with her husband; and there ended
the little bridal procession.
There were many eyes to look at it, and Miss Priscilla Lammeter was
glad that she and her father had happened to drive up to the door of
the Red House just in time to see this pretty sight. They had come
to keep Nancy company today, because Mr Cass had had to go away to
Lytherly, for special reasons. That seemed to be a pity, for otherwise
he might have gone, as Mr Crackenthorp and Mr Osgood certainly
would, to look on at the wedding-feast which he had ordered at the
Rainbow, naturally feeling a great interest in the weaver who had been
wronged by one of his own family.
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