Christine: Or Woman's Trials and Triumphs

22. Annie Murray

183 ch a p ter t w en t y- t wo Annie Murray Bright lights gleamed from Mr. Murray’s splendid mansion in Fifth Avenue; carriages rattled over the pavements, and deposited loads of ladies and gentlemen there, and bursts of music, that greeted the new-comers, as the doors flew open to admit them, involuntarily quickened the pace of the ladies as they hurried on to the dressing-room. Within all was light and gayety. Crowds of elegantly dressed ladies leaned on the arms of gentlemen, attired in all the glory of fashionable-tailordom; yet quite obscured by the more brilliant costumes of the fairer sex; but individuals were hardly to be noticed here; as they were announced there was a slight stir near the door and then they were swallowed up in the mass, adding, perhaps, a little more brilliancy to the whole. It was in fact pronounced the most brilliant affair of the season. Indeed all was dazzling; the glow of the chandeliers, the sparkle of bright eyes and of gleaming jewels, was almost enough to weary one with its unchanging brightness. Light feet kept time to the swelling music; sylph-like forms circled round to Strauss’ wild waltzes, or to Strakosch’s inspiring polkas and schottisches.   Christine 184 Beauty, youth, and fashion were there, and Mrs. Murray, as she received her friends, and exchanged a few words with those about her, was, as she looked, well satisfied. Her eyes followed the graceful motions of her daughter, as she glided through the dance, with no little pride, and, in truth, Annie had never looked so beautiful as on this, her wedding night. Her eyes sparkled with excitement, her color went and came, and her gleeful laugh rung out full and clear; she looked a very sylph in her airy dress, for rich laces fell in such profusion over the soft folds of her white satin robe that she seemed almost clad in gossamer. But why attempt the vain task of describing her dress? Did not words fail Madame Bosanquet to express her admiration of this chef d’œuvre of her forewoman’s skill, and did she not content herself with a little scream of delight, as she raised her hands and eyes to heaven in mute adoration of her artist’s taste? What her voluble tongue failed to express, it would be presumption in any other to attempt. Mr. Howard, the bridegroom, was a stout, middle-aged man, who, unlike his bride, did not seem to enter with great zest into the festivities of the evening. He looked like one who had nerved himself up to a task and was resolved to go through it unshrinkingly. He, too, had been got up regardless of expense for this occasion , as sundry bills, neatly filed away, might have testified, but, alas, this availed him nothing, for he shared the fate of all bridegrooms, and was completely lost sight of in the superior effulgence of the bride. Indeed it is a singular but, nevertheless, indisputable fact that the bridegroom is considered a personage of comparatively no importance on such occasions; but let the fair partner of his joys enjoy her brief triumph, and let the neglected one solace himself with the reflection, “thank heaven a bride and a wife are quite different things.” Christine 185 At last, for all things must come to an end, the wedding-party was over, and morning peeped in upon candles flickering in the socket, overturned vases of flowers, broken dishes, pools of wine, little archipelagoes filled with islands of cake on the carpet, empty wine bottles, scattered corks, soiled gloves, disarranged furniture, and the like matter-of-fact realities, which one would hardly expect to be the concomitants of such a scene of enchantment as that of the preceding night. Yet so it was; and while servants were endeavoring to bring something like order out of that chaos, Annie Howard and her husband were whirled off to Saratoga, Niagara, &c., on a wedding tour. Annie enjoyed this most heartily; not that she was very fond of seeing beautiful scenery, and as she said, “Niagara was nothing . She had seen it before”; but the excitement of travelling, the opportunity of displaying her elegant dresses and diamonds at the hotels, and the occasional meeting of old, and making of new acquaintances pleased her. She was therefore a little astonished when one morning Mr. Howard abruptly...