It gave her the ghastliness of a dead man 's bride . Her youthful friends stood apart , shuddering at the mourners , the shrouded bridegroom and herself ; the whole scene expressed by the strongest imagery the vain struggle of the gilded vanities of this world when opposed to age , infirmity , sorrow and death . The awestruck silence was first broken by the clergyman . `` Mr. Ellenwood , '' said he , soothingly , yet with somewhat of authority , `` you are not well . Your mind has been agitated by the unusual circumstances in which you are placed . The ceremony must be deferred . As an old friend , let me entreat you to return home . '' `` Home -- yes ; but not without my bride , '' answered he , in the same hollow accents . `` You deem this mockery -- perhaps madness . Had I bedizened my aged and broken frame with scarlet and embroidery , had I forced my withered lips to smile at my dead heart , that might have been mockery or madness ; but now let young and old declare which of us has come hither without a wedding-garment -- the bridegroom or the bride . '' He stepped forward at a ghostly pace and stood beside the widow , contrasting the awful simplicity of his shroud with the glare and glitter in which she had arrayed herself for this unhappy scene . None that beheld them could deny the terrible strength of the moral which his disordered intellect had contrived to draw . `` Cruel ! cruel ! '' groaned the heartstricken bride . `` Cruel ? '' repeated he ; then , losing his deathlike composure in a wild bitterness , `` Heaven judge which of us has been cruel to the other ! In youth you deprived me of my happiness , my hopes , my aims ; you took away all the substance of my life and made it a dream without reality enough even to grieve at -- with only a pervading gloom , through which I walked wearily and cared not whither . But after forty years , when I have built my tomb and would not give up the thought of resting there -- no , not for such a life as we once pictured -- you call me to the altar . At your summons I am here .
But other husbands have enjoyed your youth , your beauty , your warmth XXXXX heart and all that could be termed your life .
As At In after by for of to with without