Unveiling a Parallel: A RomanceJones, Alice Ilgenfritz
Science
Unveiling a Parallel: A Romance
Jones, Alice Ilgenfritz
Feminist fiction; Mars (Planet) -- Fiction; Science fiction; Utopian fiction
My chief impression about her was that she had remarkable eyes. They
were of an indistinguishable, dark color, large horizontally but not
too wide open,--eyes that drew yours continually, without your being
able to tell whether it was to settle the question of color, or to
find out the secret of their fascination, or whether it was simply
that they appealed to your artistic sense--as being something finer
than you had ever seen before. They were heavily fringed at top and
bottom, and so were in shadow except when she raised them toward the
light. Her complexion was pale, her hair light and fluffy; her brows
and lashes were several shades darker than the hair. Her hands were
lovely. Her dress was of course white, or cream, of some soft,
clinging material; and she wore a bunch of blue flowers in her belt,
slightly wilted.
There is this difference in women: some produce an effect simply, and
others make a clear-cut, cameo-like impression upon the mind. Ariadne
was of the latter sort. Whatever she appropriated, though but a tiny
blossom, seemed immediately to proclaim its ownership and to swear its
allegiance to her. From the moment I first saw her there, the blue
flowers in her belt gave her, in my mind, the supreme title to all of
their kind. I could never bear to see another woman wear the same
variety,--and I liked them best when they were a little wilted! Her
belongings suggested herself so vividly that if one came unexpectedly
upon a fan, a book, a garment of hers, he was affected as by a
presence.
I soon understood why it was that my eyes sought her face so
persistently, drawn by a power infinitely greater than the mere power
of beauty; it was due to the law of moral gravitation,--that by which
men are attracted to a leader, through intuitive perception of a
quality in him round which their own energies may nucleate. We all
recognize the need of a centre, of a rallying-point,--save perhaps the
few eccentrics, detached particles who have lost their place in the
general order, makers of chaos and disturbers of peace.
It is this power which constitutes one of the chief qualifications of
a teacher in Lunismar; because it rests upon a fact universally
believed in,--spiritual royalty; an august force which cannot be
ignored, and is never ridiculed--as Galileo was ridiculed, and
punished, for his wisdom; because there ignorance and prejudice do not
exist, and the superstition which planted the martyr's stake has never
been known.
Ariadne said that she had been up in the observatory, and that there
were indications of an approaching storm.
"I hope it may be a fine one!" exclaimed Clytia.
I thought this rather an extraordinary remark--coming from one of the
sex whose formula is more likely to be, "I hope it will not be a
severe one."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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