In and Around Berlin | Page 9

beauty of the
widowed mother, as she followed the bridesmaids, leaning on the arm
of her brother,--a fine-looking, dignified officer from Potsdam, in full
uniform, with broad silver epaulettes. The black hair of the
mother--dressed high and gracefully on the crown of her uncovered
head, set off by a fine white marguerite and a yellow one--and her dark
eyes and complexion were in strong contrast to the fair hair and light
German complexion of the younger ladies. She was in a dress of garnet
silk, fitting perfectly her tall and graceful form. The bridesmaids took
the six chairs on the right of the altar, facing the audience and before
the mass of greenery, which made an effective background for so much
youth, beauty, and elegance; and the groomsmen took the
corresponding chairs on the left. The mother and uncle parted at the
steps below the altar, she taking the first chair on the right, and he on
the left, with the central aisle between them. Next came two elderly
ladies, in dark silk with long trains, with uncovered and ornamented
hair, and white shoulder-shawls of silk or wool, each with a gentleman;
and they were seated to the right and left respectively. The bride's
eldest married sister came next, in a splendid robe of blue satin, with a
long train, looking very young and distingué. She and her husband filed
to the right and left, as the others had done. The second married sister
of the bride followed, in a similar dress of pink satin; and her very
handsome husband, in his full military suit, was a decided addition to
the courtly-looking assemblage. These five ladies filled the front row of
chairs on one side, as did the gentlemen accompanying them on the
other side. Eight other ladies, all in full dress,--one wearing an ermine
cape,--followed, each with a gentleman; and these were seated in the
second row.
When for a few brief moments I first caught sight of all this elegance, I

felt as though I were in a dream; then came a rush of emotion, because
I loved the fair young bride, and was touched at the thought of the
solemn place in which she stood,--forsaking home and friends and
native land to go to what seems to these home-dwelling Germans a far,
strange country, all for the sake of a young man whom a year ago she
had never seen. I was as sorry for the mother, too, as I could be for one
so handsome and so dignified. How fast one feels and thinks in such a
time! Before the hush which followed the procession and the temporary
change while all were finding their appropriate seats, the feeling of
sympathy had given place to one of stimulated imagination, and this
dim old soldiers' church, with the majestic music filling all its spaces,
seemed merely the setting for some scene at a royal court in the olden
time, where beauty and brilliance and grandeur were a matter of course.
The music ceased, all present rose, while Pastor Frommel read a brief
service from the book, and said "Amen." Then we sat down again, and
the pastor preached the wedding sermon, which we were told is a
matter of course at a German marriage. The sermon over, the bride and
groom stood up before him, and he looked down with a fatherly glance
upon the bride whom he took into his own house to prepare for
confirmation only a few short years ago, and whom he is now to send
with his marriage benediction across the sea. In a sweet, calm voice he
addressed them; then the bride hands her bouquet to her sister
bridesmaid sitting near, and removes her own glove; the groom takes
from his pocket a ring, and gives it to the minister, who places it on the
bride's finger, speaking a few solemn sentences, of which only the last
reaches my ears: "What God hath joined together, let not man put
asunder." For the first time in the service, the bride and groom kneel
before him who bends over them; then follows a prayer, and it is
finished. They rise, and are seated an instant; then rise again as the
pastor gives his hand in congratulation to the groom; and when he
places his hand with a few words in that of the bride, she bends low
over it and kisses it in a pathetic farewell. The pastor goes first. The
bride and groom bow in silent devotion before the altar until the time
seems a little long, then turn and come down the aisle, followed by
their retinue as they went in, but twain no more. The mother wiped
away a tear quietly once or twice during the service, the unmarried

sister bridesmaid looked as