She thought of her myrtle, tended in vain
at home by Barbara Schmidt; she thought of Ulm courtships, and how
all ought to have been; the solemn embassage to her uncle, the
stately negotiations; the troth plight before the circle of
ceremonious kindred and merry maidens, of whom she had often been
one--the subsequent attentions of the betrothed on all festival days,
the piles of linen and all plenishings accumulated since babyhood,
and all reviewed and laid out for general admiration (Ah! poor Aunt
Johanna still spinning away to add to the many webs in her walnut
presses!)--then the grand procession to fetch home the bride, the
splendid festival with the musicians, dishes, and guest-tables to the
utmost limit that was allowed by the city laws, and the bride's hair
so joyously covered by her matron's curch amid the merriment of her
companion maidens.
Poor child! After she had crept away to her own room, glad that her
father was not yet returned, she wept bitterly over the wrong that
she felt she had done to the kind uncle and aunt, who must now look
in vain for their little Christina, and would think her lost to them,
and to all else that was good.
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