Seems like a pretty shallow observation. If it was me (as the 'suitor') I would have met the comment with an equally shallow response eg. "yes, but I am well proportioned in the trouser department". That would probably have satisfied them.
Get Shorty ! recently seen Danny de Vito in the Sunshine Boys now he really is short.
How tall is the bride ? is this a love marriage or an arranged marriage ? if its the latter then he must be rich.
Poor chap he must have felt deflated !
venator - Napoleon wasn't short, that was how he was portrayed in a cartoon of the time and is how we have mistakenly thought of him in this country ever since. This was on QI and I think it was said that he was 5' 7" which was a respectable height for that time.