Chapter 18

Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense
Weigh thy opinion against Providence;
Call imperfection what thou fanciest such;
Say, here he gives too little, there too much;
Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,
And say, if man's unhappy, God's unjust.

Pope.

It is unnecessary to repeat the list of characters that acted the
different parts in the train of the village nuptials. All were there at
the close of the ceremonies, as they had appeared earlier in the day, and
as the last of the legal forms of the marriage was actually to take place
in presence of the bailiff, preparatory to the more solemn rites of the
church, the throng yielded to its curiosity, breaking through the line of
those who were stationed to restrain its inroads, and pressing about the
foot of the estrade in the stronger interest which reality is known to
possess over fiction. During the day, a thousand new inquiries had been
made concerning the bride, whose beauty and mien were altogether so
superior to what might have been expected in one who could consent to act
the part she did on so public an occasion, and whose modest bearing was in
such singular contradiction to her present situation. None knew, however,
or, if it were known, no one chose to reveal, her history; and, as
curiosity had been so keenly whetted by mystery, the rush of the multitude
was merely a proof of the power which expectation, aided by the thousand
surmises of rumor, can gain over the minds of the idle.

Whatever might have been the character of the conjectures made at the
expense of poor Christine--and they were wanting in neither variety nor
malice--most were compelled to agree in commending the diffidence of her
air, and the gentle sweetness of her mild and peculiar beauty. Some,
indeed, affected to see artifice in the former, which was pronounced to be
far too excellent, or too much overdone, for nature. The usual amount of
common-place remarks were made, too, on the lucky diversity that was to be
found in tastes, and on the happy necessity there existed of all being
able to find the means to please themselves. But these were no more than
the moral blotches that usually disfigure human commendation. The
sentiment and the sympathies of the mass were powerfully and irresistibly
enlisted in favor of the unknown maiden--feelings that were very
unequivocally manifested as she drew nearer the estrade, walking timidly
through a dense lane of bodies, all of which were pressing eagerly
forward to get a better view of her person.

The bailiff, under ordinary circumstances, would have taken in dudgeon
this violation of the rules prescribed for the government of the
multitude; for he was perfectly sincere in his opinions, absurd as so many
of