The Trumpet-Major by Thomas Hardy

Having entered into this solemn compact with his son, the elder Loveday's / next action was to go to Mrs. Garland, and ask her how the toning down of / the wedding had best be done. 'It is plain enough that to make merry / just now would be slighting Bob's feelings, as if we didn't care who was / not married, so long as we were,' he said. 'But then, what's to be done / about the victuals?'

'Give a dinner to the poor folk,' she suggested. 'We can get everything / used up that way.'

'That's true' said the miller. 'There's enough of 'em in these times to / carry off any extras whatsoever.'

'And it will save Bob's feelings wonderfully. And they won't know that / the dinner was got for another sort of wedding and another sort of / guests; so you'll have their good-will for nothing.'

The miller smiled at the subtlety of the view. 'That can hardly be / called fair,' he said. 'Still, I did mean some of it for them, for the / friends we meant to ask would not have cleared all.'

Upon the whole the idea pleased him well, particularly when he noticed / the forlorn look of his sailor son as he walked about the place, and / pictured the inevitably jarring effect of fiddles and tambourines upon / Bob's shattered nerves at such a crisis, even if the notes of the former / were dulled by the application of a mute, and Bob shut up in a distant / bedroom -- a plan which had at first occurred to him. He therefore told / Bob that the surcharged larder was to be emptied by the charitable / process above alluded to, and hoped he would not mind making himself / useful in such a good and gloomy work. Bob readily fell in with the / scheme, and it was at once put in hand and the tables spread.

The alacrity with which the substituted wedding was carried out, seemed / to show that the worthy pair of neighbours would have joined themselves / into one long ago, had there previously occurred any domestic incident / dictating such a step as an apposite expedient, apart from their personal / wish to marry.

The appointed morning came, and the service quietly took place at the / cheerful hour of ten, in the face of a triangular congregation, of which / the base was the front pew, and the apex the west door. Mrs. Garland / dressed herself in the muslin shawl like Queen Charlotte's, that Bob had / brought home, and her best plum-coloured gown, beneath which peeped out / her shoes with red rosettes. Anne was present, but she considerately / toned herself down, so as not to too seriously damage her mother's / appearance. At moments during the ceremony she had a distressing sense / that she ought not to be born, and was glad to get home again.

The interest excited in the village, though real, was hardly enough to / bring a serious blush to the face of coyness. Neighbours' minds had / become so saturated by the abundance of showy military and regal incident / lately vouchsafed to them, that the wedding of middle-aged civilians was / of small account, excepting in so far that it solved the question whether / or not Mrs. Garland would consider herself too genteel to mate with a / grinder of corn.

In the evening, Loveday's heart was made glad by seeing the baked and / boiled in rapid process of consumption by the kitchenful of people / assembled for that purpose. Three-quarters of an hour were sufficient to / banish for ever his fears as to spoilt food. The provisions being the / cause of the assembly, and not its consequence, it had been determined to / get all that would not keep consumed on that day, even if highways and / hedges had to be searched for operators. And, in addition to the poor / and needy, every cottager's daughter known to the miller was invited, and / told to bring her lover from camp -- an expedient which, for letting / daylight into the inside of full platters, was among the most happy ever / known.

While Mr. and Mrs. Loveday, Anne, and Bob were standing in the parlour, / discussing the progress of the entertainment in the next room, John, who / had not been down all day, entered the house and looked in upon them / through the open door.

'How's this, John? Why didn't you come before?'

'Had to see the captain, and -- other duties,' said the trumpet-major, in a / tone which showed no great zeal for explanations.

'Well, come in, however,' continued the miller, as his son remained with / his hand on the door-post, surveying them reflectively.

'I cannot stay long,' said John, advancing. 'The Route is come, and we / are going away.'

'Going away! Where to?'

'To Exonbury.'

'When?'

'Friday morning.'

'All of you?'