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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 Thirty-Sixth Chapter

In which things go awry at the philanthropist's wedding.

We last read The Thirty-Fifth Chapter, in which a gentle haunting awaited the widow. If you have recently joined us, start with The Prologue.

The wedding was stunning. The bride’s gown immaculate upon the alter, the bishop holding his hand over them in blessing, the open air hung with boughs of palm leaves and ferns, the stars petering in from on high. It was as a castle upon a cloud. A dream within a dream.

But if the wedding was a treat for the eyes, the feast that anteceded it was a triumph of execution. In a matter of moments pews were removed from the cathedral and tables filled it as though they had been waiting outside the cathedral for that cherished moment and then arrived at the party to provide the most elegant sustenance for it.

Each table was the perfect still life. A tableau of the most perfect oranges the eyes could behold—dewy as though picked that very morning, their leaves still attached and framing them in splendor. There were apricots from some far-off continent and plums burnt with brown sugar. Large vases were filled with confectionaries and dusted with slivered almonds.

Orange oyster shells filled with the shallow fruits of the Mississippi invited slurpers to become sea drunk on otherworldly urchins, searching among those treasures for a pearl or two to take home as a parting gift. A baked variety padded those creatures with butter and garnished them with parsley or tucked them into a bed of fromage bleu for richer dreams with far flung fantasies.

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