into the government, and
we will make Atlantis rise as a nation that shall once more surpass all
the world for peace and prosperity."

Petulantly she drew her hand away from mine. "Oh, your conditions, and
your Atlantis! You carry a crudeness in these colonial manners of yours,
Deucalion, that palls on one after the first blunt flavour has worn
away. Am I to do all the wooing? Is there no thrill of love under all
your ice?"

"In truth, I do not know what love may be. I have had little enough
speech with women all these busy years."

"We were a pair, then, when you landed, though I have heard sighs and
protestations from every man that carries a beard in all Atlantis. Some
of them tickled my fancy for the day, but none of them have moved me
deeper. No, I also have not learned what this love may be from my own
personal feelings. But, sir, I think that you will teach me soon, if you
go on with your coldness."

"From what I have seen, love is for the poor, and the weak, and for
those of flighty emotions."

"Then I would that another woman were Empress, and that I were some
ill-dressed creature of the gutter that a strong man could pick up by
force, and carry away to his home for sheer passion. Ah! How I could
revel in it! How I could respond if he caught my whim!" She laughed.
"But I should lead him a sad life of it if my liking were not so strong
as his."

"We are as we are made, and we cannot change our inwards which move us."

She looked at me with a sullen glance. "If I do not change yours, my
Deucalion, there will be more trouble brewed for this poor Atlantis
that you set such store upon. There will be ill doings in this coming
household of ours if my love grows for you, and yours remains still
unborn."

I believe she would have had me fondle her there in the golden castle on
the mammoth's shabby back, before the city streets packed with curious
people. She had little enough appetite for privacy at any time. But for
the life of me I could not do it. The Gods know I was earnest enough
about my task, and They know also how it repelled me. But I was a true
priest that day, and I had put away all personal liking to carry out the
commands which the Council had laid upon me. If I had known how to set
about it, I would have fallen in with her mood. But where any of those
shallow bedizened triflers about the court would have been glibly in his
element, I stuck for lack of a dozen words.

There was no help for it b