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Obscurity 1 Obscurity, The Prologue Free 2 Obscurity, The First Chapter Free 3 Obscurity, The Second Chapter Free 4 Obscurity, The Third Chapter Free 5 Obscurity, The Fourth Chapter Free 6 Obscurity, The Fifth Chapter Free 7 Obscurity, The Sixth Chapter Free 8 Obscurity, The Seventh Chapter Free 9 Obscurity, The Eighth Chapter Free 10 Obscurity, The Ninth Chapter Free 11 Obscurity, The Tenth Chapter Free 12 Obscurity, The Eleventh Chapter Free 13 Obscurity, The Twelfth Chapter For paid subscribers 14 Obscurity, The Thirteenth Chapter Free 15 Obscurity, The Fourteenth Chapter Free 16 Obscurity, The Fifteenth Chapter Free 17 Obscurity, The Sixteenth Chapter Free 18 Obscurity, The Seventeenth Chapter Free 19 Obscurity, The Eighteenth Chapter Free 20 Obscurity, The Nineteenth Chapter Free 21 Obscurity, The Twentieth Chapter Free 22 Obscurity, The Twenty-First Chapter Free 23 Obscurity, The Twenty-Second Chapter Free 24 Obscurity, The Twenty-Third Chapter Free 25 Obscurity, The Twenty-Fourth Chapter Free 26 Obscurity, The Twenty-Fifth Chapter Free 27 Obscurity, The Twenty-Sixth Chapter Free 28 Obscurity, The Twenty-Seventh Chapter Free 29 Obscurity, The Twenty-Eighth Chapter Free 30 Obscurity, The Twenty-Ninth Chapter Free 31 Obscurity, The Thirtieth Chapter Free 32 Obscurity, The Thirty-First Chapter Free 33 Obscurity, The Thirty-Second Chapter Free 34 Obscurity, The Thirty-Third Chapter Free 35 Obscurity, The Thirty-Fourth Chapter Free 36 Obscurity, The Thirty-Fifth Chapter Free 37 Obscurity, The Thirty-Sixth Chapter Free 38 Obscurity, The Thirty-Seventh Chapter Free 39 Obscurity, The Thirty-Eighth Chapter Free 40 Obscurity, The Thirty-Ninth Chapter Free 41 Obscurity, The Fortieth Chapter Free 42 Obscurity, The Epilogue Free

Obscurity, The Thirteenth Chapter

In which the widow has something the philanthropist wants.

We last read The Twelfth Chapter, in which a corpse was discovered behind the Cabaret St. Vincent.

The philanthropist was not so taken with the widow’s stories. He found them the consequence of idle minds and so became determined to unidle them. To this end, he invented an Easter feast, a happy occasion to forgo the fasting that had consumed most of the winter and once again enjoy the luxuries afforded by those most affluent in the city.

On the designated evening, a dinner table was set in the courtyard of his residence where guests could bask beneath the shadow of the Cathedral which towered high above them, its scaffoldings concealing the monument it would soon become. The philanthropist spared no expense in building the landmark and he wanted his guests to admire it. To see for themselves what this arriviste had built for his city, and to esteem the man who built it thanks to his boundless generosity.

The courtyard was embellished with every accoutrement: the table was draped with starched linens and inset with exotic floral displays, brass candlesticks, and freshly polished silverware. Vines crawled up the interior walls of the courtyard and heavy branches hung into it, candelabras suspended from them. It almost appeared to the guests a woodland paradise, a scene pulled from the pages of A Midsummer Night's Dream, where lush gardens flourished and fairies might be found secreted away amidst the leaves, whispering their whims to the unsuspecting guests who might hear them.

Guests dressed in their finery, thirsting for the coterie they had for so long forgone. Here they discovered an antidote for their monotony: pastries of every variety, confections that would satiate the most gluttonous king, and a large platter of meats the likes of which attendants had not consumed in some forty days.

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