49. CHAPTER XLIX.
EPITHALAMY.
Not incongruous, we trust, with any one's presentiments,
or with the spirit of these pageś, or with the solemnities of
a preceding day, as we have reason to think it was not with
the feelings of Richard Edney and the Governor's Family,
was a festivity that came off a short time afterward, — a
sort of bridal party thrown open to the public. It was a
gift of the Governor to the city, or that portion of the city
immediately concerned. No house had room enough, and
Mayflower Glen offered its commodiousness and beauty.
The invitation was to the Griped Hand and all interested
therein; and of course included a multitude of the Church,
many of the first and last families in Woodylin, the Friends
of Improvement, Knuckle Lane, the Wild Olives, and the
Islands. The Glen was lighted; music enlivened the
scene; refreshments abounded. None were excluded save
such as banished themselves by indifference to the Griped
Hand, of which Richard was co-founder, and those who
could have no interest in the Glen, — a part of the system
of urban regeneration that had been undertaken. Bronze-faced
and tow-headed Wild Olive boys, in whole jackets,
were there; River Drivers and Islanders, in clean shirts,
were there; Chuk, looking like a tame, Christianized, happy
young Orson, was there; Mysie, in a new blanket shawl,
— a benison she prized above all things, folded about her
huge figure with a kind of Indian stateliness, — was there;
the clergy and their deacons, representatives from Victoria
Square and La Fayette-street, parents and children, enthusiastic
young men, and a flowery troop of young girls, were
there.
Richard and Melicent came, with their grooms-men and
bride-maids, and other friends. They entered the Glen under
a sylvan arch. Young children threw roses, white lilies,
pansies, and sweet herbs, on the walks before them. Joyous
music saluted them. As they approached the centre of the
spot, an illuminated device sprang up as by magic over their
heads, consisting of a True Love Knot, woven of laurel, and
enclosing the two words, Virtue and Honor, and supported
on one side by Wild Olive boys, and on the other by Clarence
Redfern and Herder Langreen. At a turn in the promenade,
in a mossy nook under the trees, and so lighted as to
have the effect of a distant mountain side, they saw two
figures in white, representing Junia bestowing a chaplet on
Melicent. The procession broke up, and the multitude
mingled together, and did what free and joyous folk are
wont to do on free and joyous occasions, in the midst of so
many pleasant surroundings, and moved by so many pleasant
impulses.
This festivity, originating, indeed, with the Governor, had
been prosecuted in detail by the benevolent and ingenious
friends of Richard and Melicent.
