THE WRONG BRIDE

Taranaki Daily News, 8 October 1928, Page 15

THE WRONG BRIDE

SENSATIONS AT WEDDINGS. WOMAN’S STRANGE FREAK. It is almost beyond believing that a normally sane woman could be seized by such an hallucination as that which impelled a certain well-known lady to present herself as an uninvited guest at the wedding of an equally well-known clergyman, says Mr. F. H. Budgen, in a London paper. All the parties concerned belonged to the upper classes of English society, and the marriage took place at a fashionable West End church. One can figure therefore, the formal dignity of the scene when the officiating clergyman put the formal question: “If any man can show any just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.” Before there was time for a response a commotion was heard at the back of the church and up the aisle, leaning on the arm of a taxi-driver, came another bride, robed in silk brocade, with a tulle veil, and carrying a beautiful bouquet of flowers. As the woman came near the altar a verger interposed and asked her if she had not made a mistake. The directness of the question seemed to unnerve the woman. In a half-dazed way she muttered some reply and then allowed herself to be led out into the street, where a policeman questioned the driver and then told him to take the lady home. Later investigation resulted in explanation of this strange incident from a lady at whose home in Earl’s Court the would-be bride had been living. AN OFT-REPEATED REHEARSAL. It transpired that, like all other spinsters, the woman had long cherished the thought that one day she would be led to the altar by the man of her choice. With this idea in view, she had bought a bridal dress from a West End dressmaker and it had been her frequent custom to don it in the privacy of her own room and rehearse in front of a full-length mirror the part she would some day play in church. On this particular morning the lady, who is possessed of considerable means, was out shopping. Promptly hailing a taxicab she drove home and, telling the driver to wait, hurried upstairs, emerging half-an-hour later arrayed as a bride.

Then, giving the driver a button-hole to wear, she asked to be driven to the church, and there made the additional request that he should escort her up the aisle. He demurred at first, but the promise of a big tip satisfied his scruples and, with great dignity, he carried out the lady’s wishes. A more amusing instance, perhaps, of a cause of mistaken identity at a marriage occurred at a West End register office. Here the man in question was a well-known professor, whose "name is often prominently before the public. He had arranged to marry a lady who was an associate with him in many of his scientific experiments. It was to be a quiet affair, with no attendants; for witnesses, the couple were relying on the professional witnesses that are always to be found around a register office.

Now, a series of coincidences and mishaps took place which led to a most comical sequel. First, the professor, who is dreadfully absent-minded, forgot the time of the ceremony and arrived half-an-hour too soon. Secondly, en route in a taxicab he broke his glasses, which left him half blind. In a flurry he rushed into the register office and saw what he thought was his fiancee awaiting him. In actual fact, the lady before him was awaiting another man altogether, who, as it was learned later, had been taken ill in the streets and removed to Charing Cross Hospital. Meanwhile his fiancee, who was shortsighted, but who, out of vanity, had doffed the strong glasses which she normally wore, thought she recognised in the professor her tardy bridegroom. With a muttered apology for being late, the professor took his place by the woman’s side and the registrar proceeded. When the names were read out, the lady shrank back panic-stricken from the bridegroom with the cry: “Nd, no. It’s wrong. This is not the gentleman I’m going to marry!” On hearing her voice the man agreed with her; explanations followed, and the professor, robbed of one bride, settled down patiently to wait for the next. WOMAN WHO CHANGED HER MIND. An East End registrar tells of an extraordinary instance of how marriages are sometimes contracted without any sentiment entering into the affair. A certain couple had arranged to be married, and at the appointed time the bridegroom duly arrived. He was alone, and in explanation he mentioned that he had obtained two hours’ leave of absence for the ceremony from the factory in which he worked. Ten minutes after the time arranged the bride had not arrived, and the man was fussing and fretting about the office when a neatly dressed girl came in. “Where’s Nellie!” asked the man. “What’s keeping her!” The newcomer looked at him nervously. “She's not coming,’! she . answered slowly. “She told me to tell you she’s changed her mind. She’s not going to marry you.” The man leaped off the ground in his anger and excitement. “That’s a nice trick to play on a chap, isn’t it?” he remarked bitterly. “After me getting time off to be married and paying for the license. Why didn’t she say so yesterday?” The girl hung her head. “I told her that it wasn’t right,” she remarked after a pause, “but all I could say made no difference.” A sudden thought struck the man. “Here, Liz,” he asked, “what about marrying me yourself! Why not!” And he pleaded with her for a minute or two. To the amazement of the registrar the girl consented, and the man, turning to the official, asked him to cross out the name “Nellie Blank” and replace it on the license by “Lizzie Blank.” And great was their disappointment when they learned that new license wcu’d be necessary. A fortnight later, however, the man had evidently another “two hours off,” for he appeared with Liz, and, their faces beaming joyously, the strange couple were wed.