g
up over his shoulder quickly, he was astounded to see a woman standing
beside him.

She was clothed in a single flowing, pale green garment, rather
classically draped. According to earth standards she was not beautiful,
for, although her face was otherwise human, she was endowed--or
afflicted--with the additional disfiguring organs that Maskull had
discovered in himself. She also possessed the heart tentacle. But when
he sat up, and their eyes met and remained in sympathetic contact,
he seemed to see right into a soul that was the home of love, warmth,
kindness, tenderness, and intimacy. Such was the noble familiarity of
that gaze, that he thought he knew her. After that, he recognised all
the loveliness of her person. She was tall and slight. All her movements
were as graceful as music. Her skin was not of a dead, opaque
colour, like that of an earth beauty, but was opalescent; its hue was
continually changing, with every thought and emotion, but none of these
tints was vivid--all were delicate, half-toned, and poetic. She had very
long, loosely plaited, flaxen hair. The new organs, as soon as Maskull
had familiarised himself with them, imparted something to her face that
was unique and striking. He could not quite define it to himself, but
subtlety and inwardness seemed added. The organs did not contradict the
love of her eyes or the angelic purity of her features, but nevertheless
sounded a deeper note--a note that saved her from mere girlishness.

Her gaze was so friendly and unembarrassed that Maskull felt scarcely
any humiliation at sitting at her feet, naked and helpless. She realised
his plight, and put into his hands a garment that she had been carrying
over her arm. It was similar to the one she was wearing, but of a
darker, more masculine colour.

"Do you think you can put it on by yourself?"

He was distinctly conscious of these words, yet her voice had not
sounded.

He forced himself up to his feet, and she helped him to master the
complications of the drapery.

"Poor man--how you are suffering!" she said, in the same inaudible
language. This time he discovered that the sense of what she said was
received by his brain through the organ on his forehead.

"Where am I? Is this Tormance?" he asked. As he spoke, he staggered.

She caught him, and helped him to sit down. "Yes. You are with friends."

Then she regarded him with a smile, and began speaking aloud, in
English. Her voice somehow reminded