“What happiness would be mine in such a paradise, with Zarlah for my own!” I thought, and a great anguish filled my heart, as I realized the impossibility of it—­and now for the first time I also realized the impossibility of life without Zarlah.  A sudden dread of meeting the one I loved came upon me—­a dread of seeing the light of love in her eyes, even for an instant, knowing that it was not for me.  I felt I could not bear to behold the look of tenderness in her beautiful face change to one of hatred, upon learning how she had been deceived; and in my agony of spirit, I cried in a voice of deep emotion: 

“Ah, Zarlah!  I have won you, yet you are not mine!  You have loved me, yet I am not loved!”

“I am yours, and I love you, Harold,” softly protested a voice at my side.

With a start I turned and beheld Zarlah, and for a moment I stood as if gazing at an apparition.

Realizing my bewilderment, she laid her hand gently upon my arm, and in a low voice, full of compassion, said:  “It is Harold Lonsdale whom I love!”

In a delirium of ecstasy I caught the small white hand and pressed it to my lips.  Passing my arm about her I drew her tenderly toward me, gazing down into her beautiful eyes where lay a world of tenderness and love.  My heart was too full for words—­it was all too wonderful to understand; enough that I knew Zarlah to be wholly mine, and in those few silent moments of absolute happiness and contentment, the little stream’s merry laughter seemed to swell into the great joyous chorus of all creation, behind which is the great love principle.

Together we left the balcony and walked beneath the giant trees toward the lake, Zarlah relating to me how, through an instrument she possessed, which transmitted and received thought-waves, she had not only learned of Almos’ communication with Earth, but had descried a mental picture of the inhabitant of that distant world with whom he had spoken.

On the evening of my first communication with Mars, Zarlah was testing this instrument on Almos’ mind, when, to her great astonishment, she came into thought communication with Earth.  As this was the first trial of the instrument, Almos himself was unaware of the success that had crowned Zarlah’s invention, though he had taken much interest in it, and had on several occasions given his advice during its construction.  Although this instrument was only capable of transmitting and receiving thought-waves over a few miles, it was evident that through the medium of Almos’ mind, which was in communication with mine, the thought-waves were conveyed to Earth by the super-radium current.