ite, and the ragged shoes upon their
feet, he added with a smile, "But I think I can make you much more
comfortable first."

He led them up a broad, curving flight of stone steps to a room above,
where they found a shallow pool of water, sunk below the level of the
floor. Here he left them to bathe, getting them meanwhile robes similar
to his own, with which to replace their own soiled garments. In a little
while, much refreshed, they descended to the room below, where Lylda had
supper ready upon the table waiting for them.

"Only a little while ago my father and Aura left," said Lylda, as they
sat down to eat.

"Lylda's younger sister," the Chemist explained. "She lives with her
father here in Arite."

The Very Young Man parted his lips to speak. Then, with heightened color
in his cheeks, he closed them again.

They were deftly served at supper by a little native girl who was
dressed in a short tunic reaching from waist to knees, with circular
discs of gold covering her breasts. There was cooked meat for the meal,
a white starchy form of vegetable somewhat resembling a potato, a number
of delicious fruits of unfamiliar variety, and for drink the juice of a
fruit that tasted more like cider than anything they could name.

At the table Loto perched himself beside the Very Young Man, for whom he
seemed to have taken a sudden fancy.

"I like you," he said suddenly, during a lull in the talk.

"I like you, too," answered the Very Young Man.

"Aura is very beautiful; you'll like her."

"I'm sure I will," the Very Young Man agreed soberly.

"What's your name?" persisted the boy.

"My name's Jack. And I'm glad you like me. I think we're friends, don't
you?"

And so they became firm friends, and, as far as circumstances would
permit, inseparable companions.

Lylda presided over the supper with the charming grace of a competent
hostess. She spoke seldom, yet when the conversation turned to the great
world above in which her husband was born, she questioned intelligently
and with eager interest. Evidently she had a considerable knowledge of
the subject, but with an almost childish insatiable curiosity she sought
from her guests more intimate details of the world they lived in.

When in lighter vein their talk ran into comments upon the social life
of their own world, Lylda's ready wit, combined with her ingenuous
simplicity, put to them many questions which made the giving of an
understandable answer sometimes