Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://archive.org/details/unveilingparalle00jone Transcriber's note: The oe-ligature is represented by [oe] (example: ph[oe]nix). UNVEILING A PARALLEL. A Romance [Illustration] by TWO WOMEN OF THE WEST Copyright 1893, by Arena 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 your consciousness except a wild delirium of joy; how love of a woman will take up every cranny of space in your being,--and fill the universe beside,--so that people who are not en rapport with the strains that delight you, or with the beauty that enthralls you, seem pitiable creatures, not in touch with the Divine Harmony, with Supreme Loveliness. So it was with me, when I set my feet on Mars! My soul leaped to its highest altitude and I had but one vast thought,--"I have triumphed; I am here! And I am alone; Earth is unconscious of the glory that is mine!" I shall not weary you with an account of my voyage, since you are more interested in the story of my sojourn on the red planet than in the manner of my getting there. It is not literally red, by the way; that which makes it appear so at this distance is its atmosphere,--its "sky,"--which is of a soft roseate color, instead of being blue like ours. It is as beautiful as a blush. I will just say, that the time consumed in making the journey was incredibly brief. Having launched my aeroplane on the current of attraction which flows uninterruptedly between this world and that, traveling was as swift as thought. My impression is that my speed was constantly accelerated until I neared my journey's end, when the planet's pink envelope interposed its soft resistance to prevent a destructive landing. I settled down as gently as a dove alights, and the sensation was the most ecstatic I have ever experienced. When I could distinguish trees, flowers, green fields, streams of water, and people moving about in the streets of a beautiful city, it was as if some hitherto unsuspected chambers of my soul were flung open to let in new tides of feeling.