me. He was bending down, his pretty face full of concernful sympa

like that until enough is taken; you stopped just short of what you should

nk, sir, tangled up my senses for the moment, but they are clearer now, and I am eager

ate, but today we are all new and fresh, and if ever you are to ask questions now is certainly the time. Come with me to the city yonder, and as we go I w

we looked, so swift was the process of their growth. These waterways were covered with skiffs being pushed and rowed in every direction; the cheerful rowers calling to each other through the leafy screens separating

f that, whispering in his ear, "The town, my dear boy! the town! I am all agape to see it," he would saunter reluctantly to a booth a hundred yards further on and fall to eating strange confections or sipping coloured wines with chance acquaintances, till again I plucked hi

. The drinking-cups paused half-way to their mouths; the jests died away upon their lips; and the blinking eyes of the drinkers

, my mind still so thrilled with doubt and wonder that to me they seemed hardly more than painted puppets, the vistas of thei

e out, and with a sigh of fatigue he suggested we should take a skiff amongst the many lying about upon the margins and sail towards

h I came from home myself somewhat poorly provided with means to buy or barter

hat, no one here to hire or hire of; we will j

r should come along a

cket of budding trees underlaid with a carpet of small red flowers filling the air with a scent of honey, and soon found a diminutive craft pulled up on the bank. There were some dainty cloaks and wraps in it which An took out and laid under a t

t golden youth amidships, away we drifted under thickets of drooping canes tasselled with yellow catkin-flowers, up the blue alley of

hould I be sad, I said to myself presently? Life beat in my pulses; what had I to fear? This world I had tumbled into was new and strange,

our tailors could call it at home-and this half of the census are undoubtedly men and women. The rub is that the other half, to which you belong, all dress alike in YELLOW, and I will be fired from the biggest gun on the Carolina's main deck if I can tell what sex you belong to! I took you for a boy in the beginning, and the way you closed with the idea of having a drink with me seemed to show I was dead on the right course. Then a little later on I heard you and a friend abusing ou

d, and stared, and frowned. "Come," I said laughingly, "speak! it engenders ambiguity to be so ambiguous of gender! 'Tis no great matter, yes or no, a plain answer

moc

never mock

robe tell y

g enough, but nothing about it to hang a ded

count myse

were set upon; and though 'tis with some tinge of regret,

d it after the maidhood;

onable; man or m

be;

at that ambiguous thing before me, and then, a little wroth to be pl

am what I am you can safely taunt me, you are wrong. See! I have a sting," and like a thwarted child my companion ha

s, "why, I have a sting also-and twice as long as yours! But in truth, An, let us not talk of these things; if something in wh

ce a year. But in truth your question moves us yellow robes deeply. Did you not reall

o; how shoul

tions of humanity; guardians of those great hopes and longings which die so easily. And because we forgot our high station and took to aping another sex the gods deserted and men despised us, giving us, in the fierceness of their contempt, what we asked for. We are the slav

id, for her attitude was one of extreme dejecti

ourself do not look so far gone but what some deed of abnegation, some strong love if you could

t or two, and then, with a sigh, lifting her eyes suddenly to mine, said quietly, "Yes, sometimes; sometimes-but very seldom," while for an instant across her face th

and the pause was so awkward that i

An. Tell me something about your people, and let us begi

f the pleasant slough of her listlessne

iefly, and yet perhaps yes. If it were no then

from kings press their individualities somewhat more clearly on their sub

hter and singing down behind the bend might be the king's barge coming up citywards. "He will n

stantial to go upon; after all these gauzy folk might turn out good fellows, jol

erest in my tone, "who gets married

nd answered with smothered pity for my ignorance, "Not only Hath himself, but every one, stranger, they are al

ence of so many came to one climax at the same moment. "Surely, An, this is a marvel of arrangement. Where I dwelt

ve wooings long or short to do with weddings? You talk as if you did your woo

stime which our method lacks. But if the woman is got first and sued subsequently

t else? How it may be in that out-fashioned region you have come from I cannot tell, but here-'tis so commonplace I should have thought you must have known it-we put each new year

burst out laughing-a clear, ringing laugh that set all the light-hearted folk in the nearest boats laughing in sympathy. But when the grotesqueness of the idea had somewhat worn off, she turned grave

ings hav

catkin down; tomorrow I shall be married, with a whole summer to make love in, relieved at one bound of all those uncertainties you acknowledge to, with nothing to do but lie

ur nuptial urn, supposing the man was not to your liking, or a

In the second, no maid would covet him whom fate had given to another, it were too fatiguing, or if such a thing DID happen, then one

lowing rapidly, as streams will on the threshold of the spring, with brash or waste of distant beaches riding down it, and every now and then a broken branch or tree-stem glancing through waves whose crests a fresh wind lifted and sowed in golden showers in

g them to me. "Now that," she said, pointing to a small grey owl who sat reflective on a floating log we

, I will ruffle his philosophy for him," and suiting the action to the words I lifted a pebble that happened to lie at the bottom of the boat and flung it at that creature with the melan

s come back in the body of yonder little bird. But he has gone now," she added, with relief; "see, he s

clustering round a barge barely able to move, so thick those lesser skiffs pressed upon it. So close those wherries hung about that the garlanded rowers who sat at the oars could

gether and laughed. "It is Hath-he himself and those of the palace with him. Steer a little neare

in, gaunt young man, dressed in some sort of black stuff so nondescript that it amounted to little more than a shadow. I took it for granted that a substance of bone and muscle was covered by that gloomy suit, but it was the face above that alone riveted my gaze and made me return the stare he gave me as we came up with redoubled interest. It was not an unhandsome face, but ashy grey in colour and amongst the insipid countenances of the Martians about him marvellously thoughtful. I do not know whether those who had killed themselves by learning ever leave ghosts behind, but if so this was the very ideal for such a one. At his feet I noticed, when I unhooked my eyes from his at last, sat a girl in a loose coral pink gown who was his very antipode. Princess Heru, for so she was called, was resting one arm upon his knee at our approach and pulling a blue convolv

side of the royal barge roused me from my reverie, and nodding to An, to imply I would be back presently, I lightly jumped on to Hath's vesse

nds, Mr.

n than this one, as far as my reading went, and, withdrawing my fingers hastily, I turned to the princess, who had risen, and was eyeing her somewhat awkwardly, the while wondering what kind of salutation would be suitable in her case when a startling incident happened. The river, as said, was full of floating rubbish brought down from some far-away uplands by a spring freshet while the royal convoy was making slow

retty oarsmen head over heels and crackling through their oars like a bull through dry maize stalks. I sprang forward, and snatching a pole from a half-hearted slave, jammed the end into the head of the log and bore with all my weight upon it, diverting it a little, and thereby perhaps saving the ship herself, but n

not in the bubbling blue water alongside. Then I glanced aft to where the log, now fifteen yards away, was splashing through the sunshine, and, as I looked, a fair arm came up from underneath and white fingers clutched convulsively at the sky. What man could need more? Down the barge I rushed, and dropping only my swordbelt, leapt in to her rescue. The gentle Martians were too numb to

far into the clammy bosom of Martian sea. Again we came up, coughing and choking-I tugging furiously at that tangled raiment, and the lady, a mere lump of sweetness in my other arm-then down again with that log upon me and all the noises of Eblis in my ears. Up and dow

e lady's head upon my chest, holding her sweet, white f

g shadows of their prows were all about us, and in less time than it takes to write we were hauled aboard, revived, and taken to Hath's barge. Again the prince's lips were on my fingertips; again the flutes and music struck up; and as I squeezed the water out of my hair, and tried to keep m