the grass in front of her. "It
won't make any difference what anyone thinks or does or says. I love
you, and I'll go on loving you. We'll build our own life the way we want
it."

She shook her head slowly. "No, George. It does make a difference. You
cannot forget your family or your people. That is important to you. I
would only hurt you."

"Do you love me?"

"Yes."

"Then that's all that's important to me. Not what anyone thinks. Not
what my sister thinks or my father or my mother."

"We are different, you and I." She sat unmoving, her smooth face
unchanging. "My people seem strange to yours because we can do things
your people do not understand. We seem strange because we look
differently, we act differently, we value things differently."

"My values are the same as yours," George pleaded. "I love you because
of what you are, not because of some kind of stupid chart for physical
beauty, not because ..."

"George," she said. "Look at me."

George met her eyes suddenly, caught by the urgency in her voice. And
slowly, in front of his eyes, she changed. Her features shifted, until
George saw a beautiful young girl with pink white skin and red lips. He
saw shining blue eyes and shimmering golden hair that fell over her
shoulders. Gistla's body had changed to a lithe, smooth figure that
revealed its contours beneath the gray cape.

He caught his breath and wiped a hand at his eyes.

"What you see," said Gistla softly, "is an illusion. You see what would
be in your values, a beautiful girl."

George opened his mouth but was unable to find his voice.

"Do not be afraid, George. Beneath the illusion of your senses, I am
still Gistla. I am still a Venusian."

George reached out and touched his fingers against a white arm and a
white shoulder bared by the cape. He touched the golden hair. "Gistla,"
he said, amazed. "You're beautiful."

"Yes," she said sadly.

"But--you really are! Your hair and your eyes and your mouth. How did
you do it?"

She shook her head to show its unimportance. "It is something--like your
hypnotism."

George raised himself from his knees and sat beside her. "But I can't
believe it!"

"You can see, you can feel."

"Yes," George said. "Yes."

"You are happy with me this way, aren't you, George?"

"But you're so beautiful."

The golden-haired girl nodded her head, and the shining blue eyes
watched him carefully.

"You see then," Gistla said. "It does make a difference. You l