THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SUPPLEMENT. & 



POSITIVISM ON AN ISLAN 



THE NEW PAUL AND VIRGINIA. 



By W. H. MALLOCK. 



" Those who can read the signs of the times, read in them that the Kingdom of Man is at hand." 



Prop. Clifford. 



Evening fell on the ship with a soft, warm 

 witchery. The air grew purple, and the waves 

 began to glitter in the moonlight. The passen- 

 gers gathered in knots upon the deck. The dis- 

 tinguished strangers were still the subject of con- 

 jecture. At last the secret was discovered by 

 the wife of an old colonial judge ; and the news 

 spread like wildfire. In a few minutes all knew 

 that there were on board the Australasian no less 

 personages than Prof. Paul Darnley and the su- 

 perb Virginia St. John. 



ii. 



Miss St. John had, for at least six years, been 

 the most renowned woman in Europe. In Paris 

 and St. Petersburg, no less than in London, her 

 name was equally familiar both to princes and to 

 pot-boys ; the eyes of all the world were upon 

 her. Yet, in spite of this exposed situation, scan- 

 dal had proved powerless to wrong her, she de- 

 fied detraction. Her enemies could but echo her 

 friends' praise of her beauty ; her friends could 

 but confirm her enemies' description of her char- 

 acter. Though of birth that might be called al- 

 most humble, she had been connected with the 

 heads of many distinguished families; and so 

 general was the affection she inspired, and so 

 winning the ways in which she contrived to re- 

 tain it, that she found herself at the age of thirty 

 mistress of nothing except a large fortune. She 

 was now converted with surprising rapidity by a 

 ritualistic priest, and she became in a few months 

 a model of piety and devotion. She made lace 



THE magnificent ocean-steamer, the Austra- 

 lasian, was bound for England, on her 

 homeward voyage from Melbourne. She carried 

 her majesty's mails and ninety-eight first-class 

 passengers. The skies were cloudless ; the sea 

 was smooth as glass. Never did vessel start un- 

 der happier auspices. No sound of sickness was 

 to be heard anywhere ; and when dinner-time 

 came there was not a single appetite wanting. 



But the passengers soon discovered they were 

 lucky in more than weather. Dinner was hardly 

 half over before two of those present had begun 

 to attract general attention ; and every one was 

 wondering, in whispers, who they could possibly 

 be. 



One of the objects of this delightful curiosity 

 was a large-boned, middle-aged man, with gleam- 

 ing spectacles, and lank, untidy hair ; whose coat 

 fitted him so ill, and who held his head so high, 

 that it was plain at a glance he was some great 

 celebrity. The other was a beautiful lady of 

 about thirty years of age. No one present had 

 seen her like before. She had the fairest hair 

 and the darkest eyebrows, the largest eyes and 

 the smallest waist conceivable — in fact, art and 

 Nature had been struggling as to which should 

 do the most for her ; while her bearing was so 

 haughty and distinguished, her glance so tender, 

 and her dress so expensive and so fascinating, 

 that she seemed at the same time to defy and to 

 court attention. 



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