He received the inroad, therefore, with an air of
perfect good-humor, a manifestation of assent that encouraged still
greater innovations on the limits until the space occupied by the
principal actors in this closing scene was reduced to the smallest
possible size that was at all compatible with their movements and
comforts. In this situation of things the ceremonies proceeded.
The gentle flow of hope and happiness which was slowly increasing in the
mild bosom of the bride, from the first moment of her appearance in this
unusual scene to that in which it was checked by the cries of Pippo, had
been gradually lessening under a sense of distrust, and she now entered
the square with a secret and mysterious dread at the heart, which her
inexperience and great ignorance of life served fearfully to increase. Her
imagination magnified the causes of alarm into some prepared and designed
insult. Christine, fully aware of the obloquy that pressed upon her race,
had only consented to adopt this unusual mode of changing her condition,
under a sensitive, apprehension that any other would have necessarily led
to the exposure of her origin.
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