Page 2275 - les-miserables

ness, and tumult, and the uproar of happiness! Be grave in
church, well and good. But, as soon as the mass is finished,
sarpejou! you must make a dream whirl around the bride.
A marriage should be royal and chimerical; it should prom-
enade its ceremony from the cathedral of Rheims to the
pagoda of Chanteloup. I have a horror of a paltry wedding.
Ventregoulette! be in Olympus for that one day, at least. Be
one of the gods. Ah! people might be sylphs. Games and
Laughter, argiraspides; they are stupids. My friends, every
recently made bridegroom ought to be Prince Aldobran-
dini. Profit by that unique minute in life to soar away to
the empyrean with the swans and the eagles, even if you
do have to fall back on the morrow into the bourgeoisie of
the frogs. Don’t economize on the nuptials, do not prune
them of their splendors; don’t scrimp on the day when you
beam. The wedding is not the housekeeping. Oh! if I were
to carry out my fancy, it would be gallant, violins would be
heard under the trees. Here is my programme: sky-blue and
silver. I would mingle with the festival the rural divinities,
I would convoke the Dryads and the Nereids. The nuptials
of Amphitrite, a rosy cloud, nymphs with well dressed locks
and entirely naked, an Academician offering quatrains to
the goddess, a chariot drawn by marine monsters.

“Triton trottait devant, et tirait de sa conque
Des sons si ravissants qu’il ravissait quiconque!’

“Triton trotted on before, and drew from his conch-shell
sounds so ravishing that he delighted everyone!’

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