She wore floating gauzes,
bracelets, "a small coronet of jewels" and "a rose-coloured, bridal
veil." His dress was "simple, yet not without marks of costliness,"
with a "high Tartarian cap.... Here and there, too, over his vest,
which was confined by a flowered girdle of Kaskan, hung strings of
fine pearls, disposed with an air of studied negligence."
So they met at the ball and danced together, and I suppose he quoted:
_"Fly to the desert, fly with me,
Our Arab tents are rude for thee;
But, oh! the choice what heart can doubt,
Of tents with love, or thrones without?"_
Obviously she chose the tents with love, for as the clock struck four
they slipped away together and were married!
As Lossing puts it:
"They left the festive scene together at four o'clock in the
morning, and were married before breakfast."
They did not change their costumes, dear things! They wanted the
romantic trappings for their love poem--a love poem which was to them
more enchanting--more miraculous--than that of Lalla Rookh and the
King of Bucharia.
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