r me.

I struggled to my feet. My head was roaring. All the blood in my body
seemed rushing to my face.

After a moment I felt better. Miela pulled me to a seat.

"I did not think, Alan. The pressure of the air is different here from
your world. It was so wrong of me, for I knew. It was so when I landed
there on your earth."

I had never thought to ask her that, nor had she ever spoken of it to me.
She went on now to tell me how, when first she had opened the door on that
little Florida island, all the air about her seemed rushing away. She had
felt then as one feels transported quickly to the rarified atmosphere of a
great height.

Here the reverse had occurred. We had brought with us, and maintained, an
air density such as that near sea level on earth. But here on Mercury the
air was far denser, and its pressure had rushed in upon us instantly the
door was opened. Miela had been affected to a much less extent than I, and
in consequence recovered far more quickly.

The feeling, after the first nausea, the pressure and pain in my ears and
the roaring in my head, had passed away. A sense of heaviness, an
inability to breathe with accustomed freedom, remained with me for days.

We sat quiet for some minutes, and then left the vehicle. Miela was
dressed now as I had first seen her on the Florida bayou. As we stepped
upon the ground she suddenly tore the veil from her breast, spread her
wings, and, with a laugh of sheer delight, flew rapidly up into the air. I
stood watching her, my heart beating fast. Up--up she went into the gray
haze of the sky. Then I could see her spread her great wings, motionless,
a giant bird soaring over the valley.

A few moments more, and she was again beside me, alighting on the tip of
one toe with perfect poise and grace almost within reach of my hand.

I do not quite know what feelings possessed me at that moment. Perhaps it
was a sense of loss as I saw this woman I loved fly away into the air
while I remained chained to the ground. I cannot tell. But when she came
back, dropping gently down beside me, ethereal and beautiful as an angel
from heaven itself, a sudden rush of love swept over me.

I crushed her to me, glorying in the strength of my arms and the frailness
of her tender little body.

When I released her she looked up into my eyes archly.

"You do not like me to fly? Your wife is free--and, oh, Alan, it is so
good--so good to be back here again where I _can_ fly."

She