Moresby Wedding
p. 62 · Read in the full issue
Thoughts At A Port
By “Thyrsis”
MY thoughts went back over the long years, as, a spectator, I witnessed the wedding of Nance Rae Sefton and Philip Leslie Oakley, in early Sep tember. The names of the parents had long been known and esteemed in Papua.
Never had I seen St. John’s-on-the-Hill more beautifully decorated; the flowers, the Altar lights, and the red lamp above them gleamed and glowed and blended in a harmony of still loveliness. And never had I seen the church so crowded with familiar faces, each one, as it were, to me, a page out of the past—a past more gracious than the future, alas, can ever be.
Now the organist is playing softly the old melodies; and these, mingling with the murmurs in the pews, give to the scene an atmosphere of solemnity and joy. The Church itself, the music, the people and the gentle wind-borne voices of those out side tyre <one, awaiting assuredly the arrival of the bride.
The moments pass quickly, and then she comes, all in white, beautiful to be hold, and passes with her father up the aisle to the handsome airman awaiting her at the altar. A great moment for her, for them —and for us. too, who have known her as and since she was a child.
For we in Papua keep a warm place in our hearts for the sons and daughters of the pioneers of this wild land.
“Who is it that gives this woman away,”
The old familiar imperative question.
And soon we hear the familiar answers to this and others; the firm, “I will”; and the fainter avowal that closes a chapter in the book of life for these young votaries.
O world of lips! O world of laughter! (Hope be not fleet, nor love fly after), Of lights in the clear night, and cries, That drift along the wave and rise, Thin, to the glittering stars above, You know the hands, the eyes of love?
Some thoughts like these —and then the organist is playing again. The bride, beautiful and serene, is walking down the aisle with her husband. The white scent of hyacinths chalices the air. As she passes close, the accents of an un forgotten voice come back again, as in a dream, singing, “My Beloved Is Mine, and I Am His.”
Ratu Edward T. Cakobau, MC, has been appointed a member of the Execu tive Council of Fiji.