said one in the procession to his partner . `` I had a fancy , '' replied she , `` that the minister and the maiden 's spirit were walking hand in hand . '' `` And so had I at the same moment , '' said the other . That night the handsomest couple in Milford village were to be joined in wedlock . Though reckoned a melancholy man , Mr. Hooper had a placid cheerfulness for such occasions which often excited a sympathetic smile where livelier merriment would have been thrown away . There was no quality of his disposition which made him more beloved than this . The company at the wedding awaited his arrival with impatience , trusting that the strange awe which had gathered over him throughout the day would now be dispelled . But such was not the result . When Mr. Hooper came , the first thing that their eyes rested on was the same horrible black veil which had added deeper gloom to the funeral and could portend nothing but evil to the wedding . Such was its immediate effect on the guests that a cloud seemed to have rolled duskily from beneath the black crape and dimmed the light of the candles . The bridal pair stood up before the minister , but the bride 's cold fingers quivered in the tremulous hand of the bridegroom , and her death-like paleness caused a whisper that the maiden who had been buried a few hours before was come from her grave to be married . If ever another wedding were so dismal , it was that famous one where they tolled the wedding-knell . After performing the ceremony Mr. Hooper raised a glass of wine to his lips , wishing happiness to the new-married couple in a strain of mild pleasantry that ought to have brightened the features of the guests like a cheerful gleam from the hearth . At that instant , catching a glimpse of his figure in the looking-glass , the black veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it overwhelmed all others . His frame shuddered , his lips grew white , he spilt the untasted wine upon the carpet and rushed forth into the darkness , for the Earth too had on her black veil . The next day the whole village of Milford talked of little else than Parson Hooper 's black veil . That , and the mystery concealed behind it , supplied a topic for discussion between acquaintances meeting in the street and good women gossipping at their open windows . It was the first item of news that the tavernkeeper told to his guests . The children babbled of it on their way to school . One imitative little imp covered his face with an old black handkerchief , thereby so affrighting his playmates that the panic seized himself and he wellnigh lost his wits by his own waggery .
It was remarkable that , of all the busybodies and impertinent people XXXXX the parish , not one ventured to put the plain question to Mr. Hooper wherefore he did this thing .
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