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Transcriber's note:
The oe-ligature is represented by [oe] (example: ph[oe]nix).
UNVEILING A PARALLEL.
A Romance
by
TWO WOMEN OF THE WEST
Copyright 1893,byArena Publishing Company.
All rights reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE. Chapter I. A Remarkable Acquaintance 5 Chapter II. A Woman 28 Chapter III. The Auroras' Annual 59 Chapter IV. Elodia 88 Chapter V. The Vaporizer 106 Chapter VI. Cupid's Gardens 124 Chapter VII. New Friends 147 Chapter VIII. A Talk With Elodia 157 Chapter IX. Journeying Upward 190 Chapter X. The Master 220 Chapter XI. A Comparison 248
Chapter 1.
A REMARKABLE ACQUAINTANCE.
"A new person is to me always a great event, and hinders me from sleep." --EMERSON.
You know how certain kinds of music will beat everything out of yourconsciousness except a wild delirium of joy; how love of a woman willtake up every cranny of space in your being,--and fill the universebeside,--so that people who are not en rapport with the strains thatdelight you, or with the beauty that enthralls you, seem pitiablecreatures, not in touch with the Divine Harmony, with SupremeLoveliness.
So it was with me, when I set my feet on Mars! My soul leaped to itshighest altitude and I had but one vast thought,--"I have triumphed; Iam here! And I am alone; Earth is unconscious of the glory that ismine!"
I shall not weary you with an account of my voyage, since you are moreinterested in the story of my sojourn on the red planet than in themanner of my getting there.
It is not literally red, by the way; that which makes it appear so atthis distance is its atmosphere,--its "sky,"--which is of a softroseate color, instead of being blue like ours. It is as beautiful asa blush.
I will just say, that the time consumed in making the journey wasincredibly brief. Having launched my aeroplane on the current ofattraction which flows uninterruptedly between this world and that,traveling was as swift as thought. My impression is that my speed wasconstantly accelerated until I neared my journey's end, when theplanet's pink envelope interposed its soft resistance to prevent adestructive landing.
I settled down as gently as a dove alights, and the sensation was themost ecstatic I have ever experienced.
When I could distinguish trees, flowers, green fields, streams ofwater, and people moving about in the streets of a beautiful city, itwas as if some hitherto unsuspected chambers of my soul were flungopen to let in new tides of feeling.
My coming had been discovered. A college of astronomers in anobservatory which stands on an elevation just outside the city, hadtheir great telescope directed toward the Earth,--just as ourtelescopes were directed to Mars at that time,--and they saw me andmade me out when I was yet a great way off.
They were able to determine the exact spot whereon I would land, abouta mile distant from the observatory, and repaired thither with allpossible speed,--and they have very perfect means of locomotion,superior even to our electrical contrivances.
Before I had time to look about me, I found myself surrounded, andunmistakably friendly hands outheld to welcome me.
There were eight or ten of the astronomers,--some young, somemiddle-aged, and one or two elderly men. All of them, including theyoungest, who had not even the dawn of a beard upon his chin, and theoldest, whose hair was silky white, were strikingly handsome. Theirfeatures were extraordinarily mobile and expressive. I never saw amore lively interest manifest on mortal countenances than appeared ontheirs, as they bent their glances upon me. But their curiosity wastempered by a dignified courtesy and self-respect.
They spoke, but of course I could not understand their words, thoughit was easy enough to interpret the tones of their voices, theirmanner, and their graceful gestures. I set them down for a people whohad attained to a high state of culture and good-breeding.
I suddenly felt myself growing faint, for, although I had not fastedlong, a journey such as I had just accomplished is exhausting.
Near by stood a beautiful tree on which there was ripe fruit. Some oneinstantly interpreted the glance I involuntarily directed to it, andplucked a cluster of the large rich berries and gave them to me, firstputting one in his own mouth to show me that it was a safe experiment.
While I ate,--I found the fruit exceedingly refreshing,--the companyconferred together, and presently one of the younger men approachedand took me gently by the arm and walked me away toward the city. Theothers followed us.
We had not to go farther than the first suburb. My companion, whomthey called Severnius, turned into a beautiful park, or grove, in themidst of which stood a superb mansion built of dazzling white stone.His friends waved us farewells with their hands,--we responding inlike manner,--and proceeded on down the street.
I learned afterwards that the park was laid out with scientificprecision. But the design was intricate, and required study to followthe curves and angles. It seemed to me then like an exquisite mood ofnature.
The trees were of rare and beautiful varieties, and the shrubbery ofthe choicest. The flowers, whose colors could not declarethemselves,--it being night,--fulfilled their other delightfulfunction and tinctured the balmy air with sweet odors.
Paths were threaded like white ribbons through the thick greensward.
As we walked toward the mansion, I stopped suddenly to listen to amost musical and familiar and welcome sound,--the plash of water. Mycompanion divined my thought. We turned aside, and a few steps broughtus to a marble fountain. It was in the form of a chaste and lovelyfemale figure, from whose chiseled fingers a shower of glitteringdrops continually poured. Severnius took an alabaster cup from thebase of the statue, filled it, and offered me a drink. The water wassparkling and intensely cold, and had the suggestion rather than thefact of sweetness.
"Delicious!" I exclaimed. He understood me, for he smiled and noddedhis head, a gesture which seemed to say, "It gives me pleasure to knowthat you find it good." I could not conceive of his expressing himselfin any other than the politest manner.
We proceeded into the house. How shall I describe that house? Imaginea place which responds fully to every need of the highest culture andtaste, without burdening the senses with oppressive luxury, and youhave it! In a word, it was an ideal house and home. Both outside andinside, white predominated. But here and there were bits of color themost brilliant, like jewels. I found that I had never understood thelaw of contrast, or of economy in art; I knew nothing of "values," orof relationships in this wonderful realm, of which it maybe trulysaid, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
I learned subsequently that all Marsians of taste are sparing of richcolors, as we are of gems, though certain classes indulge inextravagant and gaudy displays, recognizing no law but that whichpermits them to have and to do whatsoever they like.
I immediately discovered that two leading ideas were carried out inthis house; massiveness and delicacy. There was extreme solidity ineverything which had a right to be solid and stable; as the walls, andthe supporting pillars, the staircases, the
polished floors, and somepieces of stationary furniture, and the statuary,--the latter not tooabundant. Each piece of statuary, by the way, had some special reasonfor being where it was; either it served some practical purpose, or ithelped to carry out a poetical idea,--so that one was never takenaback as by an incongruity.
Some of the floors were of marble, in exquisite mosaic-work, andothers were of wood richly inlaid. The carpets were beautiful, butthey were used sparingly. When we sat down in a room a servant usuallybrought a rug or a cushion for our feet. And when we went out underthe trees they spread carpets on the grass and put pillows on therustic seats.
The decorations inside the house were the most airy and gracefulimaginable. The frescoes were like clouds penetrated by the raresttints,--colors idealized,--cunningly wrought into surpassingly lovelypictures, which did not at once declare the artist's intention, buthad to be studied. They were not only an indulgence to the eye, but acharming occupation for the thoughts. In fact, almost everything aboutthe place appealed to the higher faculties as well as to the senses.
There comes to us, from time to time, a feeling of disenchantmenttoward almost everything life has to offer us. It never came to mewith respect to Severnius' house. It had for me an interest and afascination which I was never able to dissect, any more than you wouldbe able to dissect the charm of the woman you love.
With all its fine artistic elaborations, there was a simplicity aboutit which made it possible for the smallest nature to measure itscapacity there, as well as the greatest. The proper sort of ayardstick for all uses has inch-marks.
Severnius took me upstairs and placed a suite of rooms at my command,and indicated to me that he supposed I needed rest, which I didsorely. But I could not lie down until I had explored my territory.
The room into which I had been ushered, and where Severnius left me,closing the noiseless door behind him, looked to me like a prettywoman's boudoir,--almost everything in it being of a light anddelicate color. The walls were cream-tinted, with a deep frieze of alittle darker shade, relieved by pale green and brown decorations. Thewood work was done in white enamel paint. The ceiling was sprinkledwith silver stars. Two or three exquisite water-colors were framed insilver, and the andirons, tongs and shovel, and the fender round thefire-place, and even the bedstead, were silver-plated.
The bed, which stood in an alcove, was curtained with silk, and haddelicacies of lace also, as fine and subtle as Arachne's web. Thetable and a few of the chairs looked like our spindle-leggedChippendale things. And two or three large rugs might have been ofPersian lamb's wool. A luxurious couch was placed across one corner ofthe room and piled with down cushions. An immense easy chair, orlounging chair, stood opposite.
The dressing table, of a peculiarly beautiful cream-colored wood, wasprettily littered with toilet articles in carved ivory or silvermountings. Above it hung a large mirror. There was a set of shelvesfor books and bric-a-brac; a porphyry lamp-stand with a lamp dressedin an exquisite pale-green shade; a chiffonier of marquetry.
The mantel ornaments were vases of fine pottery and marble statuettes.A musical instrument lay on a low bamboo stand. I could not play uponit, but the strings responded sweetly to the touch.
A little investigation revealed a luxurious bath-room. I felt the needof a bath, and turned on the water and plunged in. As I finished, aclock somewhere chimed the hour of midnight.
Before lying down, I put by the window draperies and looked out. I wasamazed at the extreme splendor of the familiar constellations. Owingto the peculiarity of the atmosphere of Mars, the night there isalmost as luminous as our day. Every star stood out, not a meretwinkling eye, or little flat, silver disk, but a magnificent sphere,effulgent and supremely glorious.
Notwithstanding that it was long before I slept, I awoke with the day.I think its peculiar light had something to do with my waking. I didnot suppose such light was possible out of heaven! It did not dazzleme, however; it simply filled me, and gave me a sensation of peculiarbuoyancy.
I had a singular feeling when I first stepped out of bed,--that thefloor was not going to hold me. It was as if I should presently belifted up, as a feather is lifted by a slight current of air skimmingalong on the ground. But I soon found that this was not going tohappen. My feet clung securely to the polished wood and the soft woolof the rug at the bedside. I laughed quietly to myself. In fact I wasin the humor to laugh. I felt so happy. Happiness seemed to be aquality of the air, which at that hour was particularly charming inits freshness and its pinkish tones.
I had made my ablutions and was taking up my trousers to put them on,when there was a tap at the door and Severnius appeared with some softwhite garments, such as he himself wore, thrown over his arm. In themost delicate manner possible, he conveyed the wish that I might feeldisposed to put them on.
I blushed,--they seemed such womanish things. He misinterpreted myconfusion. He assured me by every means in his power that I wasentirely welcome to them, that it would give him untold pleasure toprovide for my every want. I could not stand out against suchgenerosity. I reached for the things--swaddling clothes I calledthem--and Severnius helped me to array myself in them. I happened toglance into the mirror, and I did not recognize myself. I had somesense of how a barbarian must feel in his first civilized suit.
At my friend's suggestion I hung my own familiar apparel up in thecloset,--you may imagine with what reluctance.
But I may say, right here, that I grew rapidly to my new clothes. Isoon liked them. There was something very graceful in the cut andstyle of them.
They covered and adorned the body without disguising it. They left thelimbs and muscles free and encouraged grace of pose and movement.
The elegant folds in which the garments hung from the shoulders andthe waist, the tassels and fringes and artistic drapery arrangements,while seemingly left to their own caprice, were as secure in theirplace as the plumage of a bird,--which the wind may ruffle but cannotdisplace.
I suspect that it requires a great deal of skill to construct aMarsian costume, whether for male or female. They are not altogetherdissimilar; the women's stuffs are of a little finer qualityordinarily, but their dress is not usually so elaborately trimmed asthe men's garb, which struck me as very peculiar. Both sexes wearwhite, or a soft cream. The fabric is either a sort of fine linen, ora mixture of silk and wool.
After Severnius and I came to understand each other, as comrades andfriends, he laughingly compared my dress, in which I had made my firstappearance, to the saddle and housings of a horse. He declared that heand his friends were not quite sure whether I was a man or a beast.But he was too polite to give me the remotest hint, during our earlyacquaintance, that he considered my garb absurd.
When, having completed my toilet, I indicated to him that I was readyfor the next thing on the program,--which I sincerely hoped might bebreakfast,--he approached me and taking my hand placed a gold ring onmy finger. It was set with a superb rubellite enhanced with pearls.The stone was the only bit of color in my entire dress. Even my shoeswere of white canvas.
I thanked him as well as I was able for this especial mark of favor. Iwas pleased that he had given me a gem not only beautiful, butpossessing remarkable qualities. I held it in a ray of sunlight andturned it this way and that, to show him that I was capable ofappreciating its beauties and its peculiar characteristics.
He was delighted, and I had the satisfaction of feeling that I hadmade a good impression upon him.
He led the way down-stairs, and luckily into the breakfast room.
We were served by men dressed similarly to ourselves, though theirclothing was without trimming and was of coarser material than ours.They moved about the room swiftly and noiselessly. Motion upon thatplanet seems so natural and so easy. There is very little inertia toovercome.
Our meal was rather odd; it consisted of fruits, some curiouslyprepared cereals, and a hot palatable drink. No meat.
After this light but entirely satisfactory repast we ascended thegrand st
airway--a marvel of beauty in its elaborate carvings--andentered a lofty apartment occupying a large part of the last _etage_.
I at first made out that it was a place devoted to the fine arts. Ihad noticed a somewhat conspicuous absence, in the rooms below, of thesort of things with which rich people in our country crowd theirhouses. I understood now, they were all marshaled up here.
There were exquisitely carved vessels of all descriptions, bronzes,marbles, royal paintings, precious minerals.
Here also were the riches of color.
The brilliant morning light came through the most beautiful windows Ihave ever seen, even in our finest cathedrals. The large centralstained glasses were studded round with prisms that playedextraordinary pranks with the sunbeams, which, as they glanced fromthem, were splintered into a thousand scintillating bits, as splendidas jewels.
We sat down, I filled--I do not know why--with a curious sense ofexpectancy that was half awe.
Across one end of the great room was stretched a superb curtain oftapestry,--a mosaic in silk and wool.
Severnius did not make any other sign or gesture to me except the onethat bade me be seated.
I watched him wonderingly but furtively. He seemed to be composinghimself, as I have seen saintly people compose themselves in church.Not that he was saintly; he did not strike me as being that kind of aman, though there was that about him which proclaimed him to be a goodman, whose friendship would be a valuable acquisition.
He folded his hands loosely in his lap and sat motionless, his glanceresting serenely on one of the great windows for a time and thenpassing on to other objects equally beautiful.
We were still enwrapped in this august silence when I became consciousthat somewhere, afar off, beyond the tapestry curtain, there werestealing toward us strains of unusual, ineffable music, tantalizinglysweet and vague.
Gradually the almost indistinguishable sounds detached themselvesfrom, and rose above, the pulsing silence,--or that unappreciableharmony we call silence,--and swelled up among the arches that ribbedthe lofty ceiling, and rolled and reverberated through the great domeabove, and came reflected down to us in refined and sublimatedundulations.
Our souls--my soul,--in this new wonder and ecstasy I forgotSevernius,--awoke in responsive raptures, inconceivably thrilling andexalted.
I did not need to be told that it was sacred music, it invoked theDivine Presence unmistakably. No influence that had ever before beentrained upon my spiritual senses had so compelled to adoration of theSupreme One who holds and rules all worlds.
"He lifts me to the golden doors; The flashes come and go; All heaven bursts her starry floors, And strows her lights below, And deepens on and up! the gates Roll back. * * * *"
This I murmured, and texts of our scriptures, and fragments ofanthems. It was as if I brought my earthly tribute to lay on thisMarsian shrine.
The gates did roll back, the heavens were broken up, new spiritualheights were shown to me, up which my spirit mounted.
I looked at Severnius. His eyes were closed. His face, lighted as byan inner illumination, and his whole attitude, suggested a "waitingupon God," that
"Intercourse divine, Which God permits, ordains, across the line."
There stole insensibly upon the sound-burdened air, the hallowedperfume of burning incense.
I conjectured, and truly as I afterward learned, that I was in myfriend's private sanctuary. It was his spiritual lavatory, in which hemade daily ablutions. A service in which the soul lays aside the formsnecessary in public worship and stands unveiled before its God.
It was a rare honor he paid me, in permitting me to accompany him. Andhe repeated it every morning during my stay in his house, except onone or two occasions. It speedily became almost a necessity to me. Youknow how it is when you have formed a habit of exercising your musclesin a gymnasium. If you leave it off, you are uncomfortable, you have afeeling that you have cheated your body out of its right. It was sowith me, when for any reason I was obliged to forego this higherexercise. I was heavy in spirit, my conscience accused me of a wrongto one of the "selfs" in me,--for we have several selfs, I think.
There was not always music. Sometimes a wonderful voice chanted psalmsand praises, and recited poems that troubled the soul's deepestwaters. At first I did not understand the words, of course, but theintonations spoke to me the same as music does. And I felt that I knewwhat the words expressed.
Often there was nothing there but The Presence, which hushed ourvoices and set our souls in tune with heavenly things. No matter, Iwas fed and satisfied.
At the end of a sweet half-hour, the music died away, and we rose andpassed out of the sacred place. I longed to question Severnius, butwas powerless.
He led the way down into the library, which was just off the wideentrance hall. Books were ranged round the walls on shelves, the sameas we dispose ours. But they were all bound in white cloth or whiteleather.
The lettering on the backs was gold.
I took one in my hand and flipped its leaves to show Severnius that Iknew what a book was. He was delighted. He asked me, in a languagewhich he and I had speedily established between ourselves, if I wouldnot like to learn the Marsian tongue. I replied that it was what Iwished above all things to do. We set to work at once. His teachingwas very simple and natural, and I quickly mastered several importantprinciples.
After a little a servant announced some visitors, and Severnius wentout into the hall to receive them. He left the door open, and I sawthat the visitors were the astronomers I had met the night before.They asked to see me, and Severnius ushered them into the library. Istood up and shook hands with each one, as he advanced, and repeatedtheir own formula for "How do you do!" which quite amused them. Isuppose the words sounded very parrot-like,--I did not know where toput the accent. They congratulated me with many smiles andgesticulations on my determination to learn the language,--Severniushaving explained this fact to them. He also told them that I hadperhaps better be left to myself and him until I had mastered it, whenof course I should be much more interesting to them and they to me.They acquiesced, and with many bows and waves of the hand, withdrew.
The language, I found, was not at all difficult,--not so arbitrary asmany of our modern languages. It was similar in form and constructionto the ancient languages of southern Europe. The proper names had analmost familiar sound. That of the country I was in was Paleveria. Thecity was called Thursia, and there was a river flowing throughit,--one portion of Severnius' grounds, at the back of the house,sloped to it,--named the Gyro.