Excerpt from The MonsterWhen the clergyman had gone, the bride turned.Before her was an open window before which was the open sea. In the air was a tropical languor, a savour of brine, the scent of lilies, the sound of mandolins that are far away. Below, in the garden, were masses of scarlet, high heaps of geranium blooms. A bit beyond was the Caprian blue of the San Diego Bay. There, a yacht rode, white and spacious. The yacht belonged to her husband who was beside her. She turned again and as passionately he embraced her; she coloured.For the moment, as they stood there, they seemed so sheerly dissimilar that they might have come of alien races, from different zones. He, with his fair hair, his fair skin, his resolute and aggressive face, was typically Anglo-Saxon.
Edgar Evertson Saltus was an American writer known for his highly refined prose style. Saltus received a law degree from Columbia University in 1880. Saltus wrote two books of philosophy, The Philosophy of Disenchantment and The Anatomy of Negation. Acclaimed by fellow writers in his day, Saltus fell into obscurity after his death.