The vibrations died away , and returned with prolonged solemnity as she entered the body of the church . `` Good heavens ! What an omen ! '' whispered a young lady to her lover . `` On my honor , '' replied the gentleman , `` I believe the bell has the good taste to toll of its own accord . What has she to do with weddings ? If you , dearest Julia , were approaching the altar , the bell would ring out its merriest peal . It has only a funeral-knell for her . '' The bride and most of her company had been too much occupied with the bustle of entrance to hear the first boding stroke of the bell -- or , at least , to reflect on the singularity of such a welcome to the altar . They therefore continued to advance with undiminished gayety . The gorgeous dresses of the time -- the crimson velvet coats , the gold-laced hats , the hoop-petticoats , the silk , satin , brocade and embroidery , the buckles , canes and swords , all displayed to the best advantage on persons suited to such finery -- made the group appear more like a bright-colored picture than anything real . But by what perversity of taste had the artist represented his principal figure as so wrinkled and decayed , while yet he had decked her out in the brightest splendor of attire , as if the loveliest maiden had suddenly withered into age and become a moral to the beautiful around her ? On they went , however , and had glittered along about a third of the aisle , when another stroke of the bell seemed to fill the church with a visible gloom , dimming and obscuring the bright-pageant till it shone forth again as from a mist . This time the party wavered , stopped and huddled closer together , while a slight scream was heard from some of the ladies and a confused whispering among the gentlemen . Thus tossing to and fro , they might have been fancifully compared to a splendid bunch of flowers suddenly shaken by a puff of wind which threatened to scatter the leaves of an old brown , withered rose on the same stalk with two dewy buds , such being the emblem of the widow between her fair young bridemaids . But her heroism was admirable . She had started with an irrepressible shudder , as if the stroke of the bell had fallen directly on her heart ; then , recovering herself , while her attendants were yet in dismay , she took the lead and paced calmly up the aisle . The bell continued to swing , strike and vibrate with the same doleful regularity as when a corpse is on its way to the tomb . `` My young friends here have their nerves a little shaken , '' said the widow , with a smile , to the clergyman at the altar . `` But so many weddings have been ushered in with the merriest peal of the bells , and yet turned out unhappily , that I shall hope for better fortune under such different auspices . ''
`` Madam , '' answered the rector , in great perplexity , `` this strange occurrence brings to my mind a marriage-sermon of the famous Bishop Taylor wherein he mingles so many thoughts of mortality and future woe that , to speak somewhat after his own rich style , he seems to hang the bridal-chamber XXXXX black and cut the wedding-garment out of a coffin-pall .
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