Extraterrestrial beings -- Fiction; Science fiction, English; Space flight to Mars -- Fiction
As soon as the King and his ministers had gone, servants arrived and
conducted us to a suite of luxuriously fitted baths, where we made
ourselves more presentable. Fortunately, each had donned an entirely
new outfit before we deserted the _Sirius_, so that our task was by
no means a difficult one. We were discussing our altered fortunes,
after completing our toilet, when a marshal entered and, walking up to
Graham, said with a low bow:
"Art thou Harry Graham?"
"I am; what is your pleasure?" he answered.
"Then Volinè would see thee. Follow me, and I will show thee to my
mistress."
"Go and enjoy your well-deserved happiness," said Temple, in English;
but the Doctor muttered something by no means complimentary to Volinè.
Graham was too full of joy to feel angry with his old and eccentric
friend, and thanking Temple for his good wishes, turned and followed
his conductor. Once more he must furnish this portion of our narrative
himself:--
"Leaving the saloon of baths, I followed my stately guide along a wide
corridor, on either side of which was ranged statuary of priceless
value, until we came to the wide staircase up which we had passed on
our way to the banquet-chamber. Through an archway at the foot of
this, I knew the way led to Volinè's apartments. At the bottom of this
spacious stairway we met two of Volinè's maids, and here the marshal
bowed and left me. These maidens then stepped forward, and each taking
one of my hands, they bade me come with them, and so I was led into
Volinè's presence.
"I found my darling in a magnificent chamber, where every luxury that
art and ingenuity could devise assisted in making the whole harmonious
and splendid. She was reclining on a low couch, draped with rich
dark furs of silky softness, her flossy hair falling all free and
unrestrained around her bust and shoulders, one shapely arm resting
along the back of the couch, the other pillowing her lovely head.
What incarnation of female beauty! was my single thought as I beheld
her there in all her splendour; and for a moment I stood upon the
threshold of her room, spell-bound between my maiden guides, dazzled
and bewildered by the vision of perfectness before me. With a smile for
which any man would cheerfully have sold his soul, she rose into a
sitting posture, saying:
"'Cyni, thou and thy sister may now leave.'
"Neither of us spoke nor moved further until the two maids had gone,
leaving me standing as in a dream, watching the sweet picture before
me. Then Volinè rose to her feet, and with smiles and blushes lending
an added charm to her countenance, came towards me, murmuring my name!
The spell was broken; and oblivious to aught else, I ran forward and
clasped her in my arms again.
"'Oh, Volinè, Volinè! my darling; this is rapture indeed. How good of
you to send for me thus!'
"'Happy do I feel to have thee with me again,' she answered, as her
head sank nestling on my breast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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