EDITOR'S WALLET.

Otago Witness, Issue 1933, 7 December 1888, Page 37

EDITOR'S WALLET.

A Wedding Story.

The homily with which our marriage service closes lacks intrinsic' cheerfulness and its peculiar charms, actual € r suggestir e, are seldom appreciated by' the. more, youthfnl class of brides. 'If either, despite its sliglit indelicacy, do all bridegrooms relißh ib trifch a perfect zest, although in summarising the obligations of matrimony it psis She pasa for the husband a good doal more advantagoously than for the wife." I remember an odd incident, illustrative of the objection* entertained toward this tiresome exordium by mon of the "Time-is- money" and "Self-help]" ways of thinking. It took place at 'the second wedding of an honourable and gallant friend of mine, whose humour' was abundant, but of the variety known as " dry." He was being. married, let us say, at South 'Shields, a good 'many years ago, and, having been through the ceremony before, as a principal, was sharply on the lookout for the homily, which he' regarded in the light of a vexatious superfluity. Accordingly when ' the ' curate— a young and somewhat nervous ecclesiastic — had completed the " buckling-to " part of the service, and was mildly bleating out' the exhortation to " hear what St. -Paul saith," Captain P > held up his 1 hand, to fche officiant's utter dismay, and interrupted him with the words : " I beg "your :pardonv air ; but are we legally married f " " Why,' yes } certainly you are," was the hesitating reply. "Then, sir," rejoined the Captain; M'-ll' not trouble you to tell us what St. Paul said;' Sti Paul may have been a very good fello#, but he wasn't a South Shields man.'-! This said, he gave his arm to his newly-made wife, and led her away calmly in tho direction of the vestry.

The curate, it appears, entertained so high an opinion of the occult virtues of the homily, and of the beneficial effect they could not fail to exercise upon a young matried couple, that he took my friend aside a few minutes before the wedding breakfast and timidly asked him whetheF he would permit him, the said curate, to impart St. Paul's views to him and Mrs P orally on their return from the honeymoon trip J To this question, dictated by professional zeal which would have done credit to an earjy Christian, my, friend returned a polite bufc evasive answer. When, however, husband and wife came back to their town, at the^onclusion of what the Germans so happily term " Die Flitterwochen," they were so obriously a happy pair, and the subsequent harmony of their married life proved so delightfully continuous, as far as their .many friends and acquaintances knew, that the reverend enthusiast nover found occasion to "plftce" Ids favourite homily, and wisely, left at least two of nis wedded parishioners to work.oufc their connubial felicity in their own way. . •