A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, James De Mille [best classic romance novels .TXT] 📗

and to the caverns, where they might live in the dark. Soon nearly all were gone except the paupers at the foot of the pyramid, who were awaiting our commands, and a crowd of Meleks and Athons at a distance. At a gesture from me the few paupers near us descended and joined those below.

Almah and I were alone on the top of the pyramid.

I caught her in my arms in a rapture of joy. This revulsion from the lowest despair⁠—from darkness and from death back to hope and light and life⁠—was almost too much to endure. We both wept, but our tears were those of happiness.

“You will be all my own now,” said I, “and we can fly from this hateful land. We can be united⁠—we can be married⁠—here before we start⁠—and you will not be cruel enough to refuse. You will consent, will you not, to be my wife before we fly from the Kosekin?”

At this Almah’s face became suffused with smiles and blushes. Her arms were about me, and she did not draw away, but looked up in sweet confusion and said,

“Why, as to that⁠—I⁠—I cannot be more your⁠—your wife than I am.”

“What do you mean?” I exclaimed, in wonder. “My wife!”

Her eyes dropped again, and she whispered:

“The ceremony of separation is with the Kosekin the most sacred form of marriage. It is the religious form; the other is merely the civil form.”

This was unintelligible, nor did I try to understand it. It was enough to hear this from her own sweet lips; but it was a strange feeling, and I think I am the only man since Adam that ever was married without knowing it.

“As to flight,” continued Almah, who had quite adopted the Kosekin fashion, which makes women take the lead⁠—“as to flight, we need not hurry. We are all-powerful now, and there is no more danger. We must wait until we send embassies to my people, and when they are ready to receive us, we will go. But now let us leave this, for our servants are waiting for us, and the light is distressing to them. Let us go to the nearest of our palaces and obtain rest and food.”

Here Featherstone stopped, yawned, and laid down the manuscript.

“That’s enough for today,” said he; “I’m tired, and can’t read any more. It’s time for supper.”

Colophon

A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder
was published in 1888 by
James De Mille.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Alex Cabal,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2009 by
Andrew Sly
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at
Google Books.

The cover page is adapted from
Agathaumas,
a painting completed in 1897 by
Charles R. Knight.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

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