.."

The carriage jolted and zigzagged, but the group sat undisturbed. Each
felt drawn to the other three by a decidedly increasing sympathy.

What spirit haunted these carriages? All these people were held by an
obsession. They had seen the bride in her starry whiteness and
persistently retained an image with a halo round it. The bride was the
sole topic.

"I don't approve of a double standard," said another lady. "They did a
tremendous amount for her sister's wedding; you know they did, while
they're not doing a thing for this poor child." A shrug of the
shoulders. "I don't think it's fair."

Everything she said came out with a ripple in it from the unevenness of
the paving. Her neighbor was plunged in dreams, unaware. A day triumphal
arose out of the distant past when she too walked in white.
"Twenty-seven years like one month! How time does fly!"

They warmed up to their subject.

"She is making a very bad match: he hasn't a cent...."

"You forget she's well over twenty-two. A girl has got to take a husband
when she finds one. Husbands don't grow in the front-yard."

The perspiration came out in beads on their fleshy foreheads. A stop.
What had happened? A block? An accident? Plumed hats were stuck out of
carriage doors. "Get in again, madam, you can't see anything. You'll
break your aigrette. If I tell you...."

The procession shortened like a snake drawing in its coils.

"Ha, ha! I know someone who will not find it dull to-night!"

Their laughter took on a sharper edge; smiles lurked in the corners of
their mouths just deep enough to show that they understood, that they
had their own recollections and at the same time were in well-bred
company.... This lady with the air of knowing a thing or two....
What?... Without waiting to be importuned, she drew herself up
heroically and whispered something over the frilled hat of the little
girl beside her. They threw themselves back beaming, stuffed full.
"Impossible!"

Boots creaked, gowns rustled. The carriages began to clatter through the
streets again.

The laughter of young people. Not very loud. Hiding something sweet and
indefinably solemn. She was only fourteen. She had nothing but her thin
little feelings, which, however, kept her straight and haughty as an
Infanta. By leaning over slightly she succeeded in seeing the bride. The
bride ... the white word flitted about her like a light ball.... But
straightway she saw the bride her eyes fell. The same