le without appearing to do so intentionally."

"But won't she think it very strange behaviour on my part if I avoid her
now, after being so much in her company?" he asked desperately, as if in
hopes that I might not press him to give up the idea of continuing as
before.

"No, John, I do not think so," I replied. "You know she is a Martian,
and if she has not already some intuition of the situation, the very
next time you see her this trouble will be on your mind, and she will
become aware of the exact position of affairs; and I have no doubt she
will accept the situation, though it will probably cause her
considerable pain. You should have thought of all this sooner, my boy.
It is a great pity this has happened, but there is no help for it now,
and no other honourable way out of it that I can see. I am, however,
extremely sorry for you both."

"Thank you, Professor," he exclaimed, grasping me fervently by the hand;
"but it is very hard luck indeed."

He was very quiet and self-absorbed for several days after that, but
things turned out just as I anticipated. The next time he and Siloni met
and conversed together, she became aware of the change in him, and
divined the reason of it. She said nothing, but he knew she understood;
and, except that she was quieter, she never made any difference in her
behaviour towards him when they met occasionally afterwards.

So, though I was sorry in some respects, I was very glad that this
awkward matter was settled.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE MARTIAN SEASONS

Our earliest records of Mars date back to a very remote period, viz.
2300 years before the birth of Christ! Professor Hilprecht, in the
course of his investigations on the site of the ancient city of Nippur,
made extensive excavations, and dug down and down through the ruins
until he had penetrated through those of no less than sixteen different
cities, which, at various times, had been built one over the other. He
unearthed the famous Temple of Bel, together with its great library,
consisting of over 23,000 tablets, containing the chronicles of Bel.

When a number of these tablets had been deciphered, they were found to
contain a complete system of philosophy, science, and religion, and
proved that those ancient people knew many things about astronomy, and
in some of the fundamental matters would not have much to learn from
astronomers of the present day. These tablets contained, amongst other
things, records of observa