The Cosmic Courtship

THE twenty-second of June, of the year 2001, was Miriam Mayne’s birthday—her twenty-first. She and her father, Terence Mayne, the billionaire contractor, had arranged to meet at...

A LITTLE more than a year after Miriam became Mary Faust’s pupil and partner, the new Madison Square Garden was opened with the annual horse-show, which, for ages, had been a le...

TWO days after the horse-show opening Jack stood in front of an easel, in the studio on the top floor of an up-town building. He had charcoaled on the canvas a design of a girl...

“HERE is where I saw Miss Mayne last,” said Jack, as he and Jim paused before a massive door studded with iron nails, in the western end of a high cement wall, on which the shad...

THESE astounding words were so composedly and confidently spoken as to make incredulity clash against conviction in a bewildering battle. Jack’s knees relaxed, and there was a p...

A GREAT resolve is magnetic: it transforms the bystanders. Jack, modest and shy by nature, suddenly became the leading personage of the group. He had not spoken rashly or withou...

He looked around him, turning slowly this way and that. On every side stretched out a plain—if it were a plain; but it had no horizons—no curvature. In fact, though solid beneat...

JACK was lying on his back on the ground. In the beautiful sky overhead hung what looked like a vast silvery simitar, the curved edge downward, flashing in the sun, if it were n...

THE newcomer was a pleasant-looking young fellow, of about Jack’s age, and similarly attired, though in different colors. He came swiftly forward, with arm upraised in a friendl...

LAMARA’S countenance was youthful, but luminous with intelligence, and her stately grace gave an impression of dignity and superiority. She was exceedingly lovely. She gave him...

“A spirit undisciplined—in whom impulses of nature, blameless in themselves, are prone under temptation to unite with the evil. Torpeon, as we now know, working on the kinship b...

MIRIAM’S trance was physical only; and the disjunction of spirit from body was not so complete as to prevent occasional gleams of consciousness from passing from one to the othe...

JACK’S subjection to the power of mortification and despair did not last long. He raised himself from the ground and stared about him. The first thing he saw was Jim squatting b...

ZARGA did not wait for the banqueters to recover from their surprise, but came forward at once with the air of a hostess conscious of having pleased her guests. Her bearing seem...

AFTER Jack and Zarga had disappeared into the butte, Jim wheeled and hobbled back to the place where he had parted from them. It had been his intention, in spite of orders to th...

LAMARA, having convinced herself that Miriam was no longer on the island bethought herself of the subterranean passage. This was a secret way to the mainland, and known to few;...

“You did your best,” she replied; “none can do more, but the spirit rules the outcome. No just cause is lost through our effort to win it; it is gained, though in ways beyond ou...

JACK, seated in a corner of the silver bench, kept his eyes upon the column of blue vapor that rose upward from the smoldering fire in the font. But his mind was filled with som...

THE genius of the Torides had qualities which more affiliated them with the people of our own earth than did that of the Saturnians. Their desire for power had stimulated them t...

His rule, despotic though it was, had never been free from difficulties. There were two parties among the Torides—one occupying the savage portion of the globe; the other the en...

KROTOX and Asgar had killed a goat and were eating it. They squatted at the entrance of their habitation, with the skinned carcass between them, and cut strips of flesh from it...

“SURE, miss,” Jenny allowed herself to say, as she set down the tea-tray before her mistress, “’tis a sight for sore eyes ye are! You seeming so natural-like, after all the sign...

LAMARA sat on a bench in the island garden, her hands folded in her lap. The bench was carved out of a piece of chalcedony, with soft orange-veins running through it, and bearin...

AT a high point of the seacoast there lay a great amphitheater, the period of whose construction was known to none living; it had stood there for more than a thousand Saturnian...

PROBABLY none of the myriads who leaned forward to observe the proceedings, except Jack, were surprised at these words. He had not fathomed the nature of the Saturnians. He migh...

JACK was so much dazed by what he had seen and heard that he could find nothing to say to Lamara, or to Aunion either. The slope from the amphitheater led down to the beach, whe...

TORPEON, after receiving the signal that Miriam wished to speak with him, was on his way down the main staircase of the castle when he met a servant hurrying in the opposite dir...

Miriam regarded him with increasing pleasure and cordiality. Here was a creature, absolutely trustworthy and highly intelligent, come to her at a moment when she was most in nee...

SOLARION caught the crystal cup as it dropped from Jack’s hand, and with his other arm supported his body as it fell. Argon uttered a cry of dismay. But meeting the other’s eyes...

ZARGA had met her mistress, alone and unseen, immediately after the breaking up of the high court of justice. The place was on the island, at the spot where the pavilion had sto...

TORPEON now fought single-handed against the maddened thousands of his subjects. He laughed as he fought. He cleared a space around him, and at every wave of his truncheon a man...

LAMARA took Miriam in her arms and kissed her. The caress revived the girl’s drooping strength and sent currents of joyous sunshine rippling through her veins. A glorious light...

AN East Indian reclining chair, eased with soft pillows and placed in the embrasure of a western window, took the rays of the sinking sun, and was breathed upon by the light eve...