turns out too true, being speedily
confirmed, first by the retirement of the bride and a select file of
intimates who are to prepare her for the journey, and secondly by the
withdrawal of the ladies generally. To this there ensues a particularly
awkward pause, in which everybody essays to be facetious, and nobody
succeeds; at length the bridegroom makes a mysterious disappearance in
obedience to some equally mysterious signal; and the table is deserted.

Now, for at least six weeks last past it has been solemnly devised and
settled that the young couple should go away in secret; but they no
sooner appear without the door than the drawing-room windows are blocked
up with ladies waving their handkerchiefs and kissing their hands, and
the dining-room panes with gentlemen's faces beaming farewell in every
queer variety of its expression. The hall and steps are crowded with
servants in white favours, mixed up with particular friends and relations
who have darted out to say good-bye; and foremost in the group are the
tiny lovers arm in arm, thinking, with fluttering hearts, what happiness
it would be to dash away together in that gallant coach, and never part
again.

The bride has barely time for one hurried glance at her old home, when
the steps rattle, the door slams, the horses clatter on the pavement, and
they have left it far away.

A knot of women servants still remain clustered in the hall, whispering
among themselves, and there of course is Anne from number six, who has
made another escape on some plea or other, and been an admiring witness
of the departure. There are two points on which Anne expatiates over and
over again, without the smallest appearance of fatigue or intending to
leave off; one is, that she 'never see in all her life such a--oh such a
angel of a gentleman as Mr. Harvey'--and the other, that she 'can't tell
how it is, but it don't seem a bit like a work-a-day, or a Sunday
neither--it's all so unsettled and unregular.'

THE FORMAL COUPLE

The formal couple are the most prim, cold, immovable, and unsatisfactory
people on the face of the earth. Their faces, voices, dress, house,
furniture, walk, and manner, are all the essence of formality, unrelieved
by one redeeming touch of frankness, heartiness, or nature.

Everything with the formal couple resolves itself into a matter of form.
They don't call upon you on your account, but their own; not to see how
you are, but to show how they are: