Marathe and Kate at Ryle's — "My wife’s wedding helmet was of…"
‘My wife’s wedding helmet was of the finest nickel mined and molded by friends in the nickel mines of southwest Switzerland. Each of us, we were rolled down the aisle in special conveyings. Hers with special pans and drains, for the fluids. It was the happiest day ever for me, since the train. The cleric asked did I choose this woman. There was a long time of silence. My whole very being came to a knifelike point in that instant, Katherine, my hand holding tenderly the hook of my wife.’
Context
The wedding: two damaged bodies rolled down the aisle in "special conveyings," hers fitted with pans and drains, the nickel helmet mined by legless friends — and the vow rendered as the book's ur-question, "did I choose this woman." The golden hook Marathe daydreams for her at p. 753 turns out to be real. Deformity, prosthesis, and chosen love in one tableau; arguably the theme's most complete single passage.