Chapter 33
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Term ended and the day of the wedding arrived. It was brilliantly clear and sunny. One of his classmates was best man, and came to take him to the hall for the ceremony. Oddly, Carl felt as though he had been filled with lead: he had no emotions and moved with a dull heaviness. The people assembled, many of them from among the rich and powerful, including three senators.
And then he was standing at the front of the hall before the minister, listening to the quiet murmurs of the audience. This subsided as the music swelled. Carl turned and looked toward the entrance at the back of the hall just as Clarice entered, holding onto the arm of her father. Carl saw the senator’s facial expression of triumphant complacency.