She explained that her brother had just returned in it from the north,
where he had spent the day in the enjoyment of winter pastimes.
My heart was too full of the sorrow of parting to be aroused to
enthusiasm at even such a wonder as this, and, realizing that I would be
unaccustomed to an aerenoid that was strange to Almos, I decided to
trust to the smaller one reaching the observatory in time. But not a
moment was to be lost, and, begging Zarlah to be courageous until my
return the following evening, I pressed her to my heart in a last fond
embrace.
Oh! the agony of that moment, as I felt the slender form in my arms
convulsed with sobs, while I, struggling frantically with the emotions
that tore my heart, whispered words of passionate love; and as at last I
rose in the night air, condemned by Fate to journey millions of miles
from her I adored, my soul cried out in its anguish:
"'Ah, Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits--and then
Re-mould it nearer to our Heart's Desire?'"
CHAPTER XI.
THE DISCOVERY AT THE MARTIAN OBSERVATORY.
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