ooking at Venus and speculating on what I was
about. How delighted I should be to see them again, and show them my
incomparable wife--but could I ever take her there?

Whilst I was musing, the low sweet voice of Alumion thrilled me to the
marrow. I turned and saw her. She was dressed to-night in a filmy
vesture of opalescent or pearly white, partly diaphanous, and having a
deep fringe of gold. There was a pink blush on her cheek and a sparkle
of girlish love in her celestial eyes. Never had she seemed more
ravishingly beautiful.

"Beauty too rare for use, for earth too dear."

"You were gazing on the star. You did not hear my coming," she said with
a little feminine pout.

"I was thinking of you, darling."

She smiled again.

"Is it not a lovely star?" she said. "We call it the star of Love--the
star of the Blest."

"It is my home."

"Your home!" she exclaimed with a look of surprise and wonderment.

"You have heard that I come from another world."

"Yes, but I did not know it was a star. And is that beautiful star your
home?"

"Yes, beloved; and I am sorry to say I must return there soon again."

"And I will go! You will take me with you to that fair world!"

I thought of all the crime and folly, the deceit, violence, and
wretchedness lurking behind that pure and peaceful ray. Alas! how could
I tell her the truth and destroy her illusions. She was innocent as a
child, and an instinct warned me to keep the knowledge of evil from her,
while a contrary spirit urged me to speak.

"You might not find it so fair as it looks from here."

"I am sure it cannot be an evil world since you come from it. To us it
is a sacred star."

"If the inhabitants could see it as I do now, perhaps the sight would
make them lead better lives--would shame them into being worthier of
their dwelling-place."

"Are they not good?" she asked with a look of wonder and sorrowful
compassion. "Then how unhappy they must be."

"Some are good and some are bad. Everything is mixed in our world--the
strong and the weak--the rich and the poor--the happy and the
miserable."

"But do the good not help the bad?"

"Yes, to a certain extent; but life is a struggle there; every man for
himself; and the good very often find it hard to secure a little
happiness for themselves."

"How can they be happy when they know that others are suffering and in
want, that others are bad? I long to go and help them."

"Darling, you are an angel, a