CHAPTER VIII.
THE WEDDING.
The time now rapidly approached for the marriage of Oliver and Mary. Their lives, had been in the past, of a by no means monotonously happy character. Both of them had suffered, and suffered poignantly. Mary herself had been a member of the ruling class. She had been reared in luxury, and supplied with everything which wealth could provide for her. But although supplied with every possible luxury, she was not happy, for she craved for someone upon whom she could lavish the wealth of affection which constituted so great and important a part of her healthy, passionate nature. Possessed of the perfect and splendid form of a fully-developed beautiful woman, she was also the possessor of the intense emotionalism and perfect capacity for love, which is always the characteristic of the natural woman whose ardent feminality has not been diminished or destroyed by the indigence, or excessive luxury, which is a usual concomitant of high civilization.
At last Mary met her complement in Oliver Spence, and as the steel flies to the magnet, so she flew to, and clung to him. To her he was perfection, the sound of his voice was to her ears the sweetest, entrancing music, his utterances appeared the quintessence of wisdom, and his appearance that of a Greek god. For him she threw up her position in society, and her excellent opportunities of marrying some rich man for whom she could have no love. Her friends condemned, because they could not understand this "infatuation," as they termed it, for this poor, and obscure, suspected conspirator.
Her parents cast her off, and she was compelled to earn her living in domestic service. Oliver, who reciprocated her affection, would have married her, but although she was so passionately devoted to him that she often felt willing to abandon everything to him, although every fibre of her being ached and hungered for him, yet, so strangely are women constituted that she indefinitely postponed the acceptance of his offer, persuading herself that it was for his welfare; that she would avoid the possibility of impeding his progress, or fettering him in his great work.
Oliver's triumph however altered matters. She saw that in his new station she could be of considerable assistance to him, more particularly as the people were beginuing to marvel at, and unfavorably comment upon, the celibacy of their Dictator.
The marriage took place in the Sydney Town Hall, in the presence of the members of the National Board of Advice, and a large concourse of men and women. The bride looked very happy as she walked into the Town Hall, accompanied by her new friends, the wives of some of the most distinguished of the Revolutionists. She was attired in a white satin dress, her face was veiled with point lace her neck encircled with pearls, and her head wreathed and crowned with orange blossoms.
The marriage ceremony was performed by the Registrar-General, Oliver, although not an Atheist, had no belief in any of the current religions, nor had his wife. The Dictator also desired a secular marriage, in order that he might avoid the possibility of stirring up sectarian strife, as, had he been married by the priest or minister of any Church, he might have reasonably been supposed to be a member of that Church.
They left the Town Hall arm-in-arm, amid the admiring plaudits of the multitude, who were charmed and transported by the extraordinary beauty and grace of the Dictator's wife. Arrived at Spence's house, they sat down, with a large number of guests, to the wedding breakfast.
Mary Lovelace had exchanged her name for that of her lover, and her fondest wish, her highest ambition was gratified. Was she happy? Yes; supremely, ineffably happy. She would not have exchanged her new position for all the treasures in the world. She fondly followed her husband's every movement, and impatiently longed for the time when they would be alone together, that she might throw her arms around his neck and devour him with her burning kisses.
At last all the guests had departed, and the newly-married couple, retired together to their private apartments, where we will leave them, for it is not our business to pry into the sacred and esoteric mysteries and pleasures of the nuptial chamber.