Excerpt from Romances of Real Life, Vol. 2 of 2 Since the days of Selby House and Shirley Manor, novelists have shrunk with dismay from the task of describing the minutiae of those weddings, which three elaborate volumes have hardly sufficed to bring about. Even the public journals of the day can scarcely be bribed to record more than the officiation of the very Reverend the Dean, or the right Reverend the Bishop; with a brief notice of some enchanting villa on the banks of the Thames, to which the bride and bridegroom are mysteriously whirled by Newman's iron grays. In truth, the present mode of celebrating the holy rites of marriage, affords small scope to the descriptive powers of even the most diffuse amplifier. It is only in France, and even there chiefly in the provinces, that they are solemnized by a fortnight's formal reunion of the respective families. Previous to the Revolution, this public exhibition of bridal blushes was an essential branch of etiquette, even among the ancienne noblesse; and Harriet Byron herself did not encounter a more painful display than was destined to the lovely and timid heroine of my tale. "And where did you procure your violets, my pretty Valentina?" inquired Leon, requiring a kiss of welcome, as he drew the foster-sister of the young Countess into a recessed window of the hall. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."