n's company and growing confidence, but
they were not the less welcome because they drew their sisters to
listen to my descriptions of an existence so strange and so remote in
habits and character, as well as in space. Perhaps their gentle
governess learned more than any other member of the family respecting
Earth-life, and my own adventures by land and water, in air and space.
For, though just not child enough to share the children's freedom, she
took in all they heard; she listened in silence during our evening
gatherings to the conversation in which her father and brother
encouraged me to practise the language I was laboriously studying. She
had, therefore, double opportunities of acquiring a knowledge which
seemed to interest her deeply; naturally, since it was so absolutely
novel, and communicated by one whose very presence was the most
marvellous of the marvels it attested. How much she understood I could
not judge. Except her mother, the ladies did not take a direct part in
my talk with the children, and but very seldom interposed, through my
host, a shy brief question when the evening brought us all together.
The maidens, despite their theoretical privileges, were even more
reserved than their elders, and the dark-haired Eveena the most silent
and shy of all.

I learned afterwards that the privilege of intercourse with the ladies
of the household, restricted as it was, was wholly exceptional, and
even in this family was conceded only out of consideration for one who
could not safely be allowed to leave the house.

CHAPTER V - LANGUAGE, LAWS, AND LIFE.

Though treated with the greatest kindness and courtesy, I soon found
reason to understand that I was, at least for the present, a prisoner.
My host or his son never failed to invite me each day to spend some
time in the outer enclosure, but never intentionally left me alone
there. On one occasion, when Kevima had been called away and I
ventured to walk down towards the gate, my host's youngest child, who
had been playing on the roof, ran after me, and reaching me just as my
foot was set on the spring that opened the gate or outer door, caught
me by the hand, and looking up into my face, expressed by glance and
gesture a negative so unmistakable that I thought it expedient at once
to comply and return to the house. There my time was occupied, for as
great a part of each day as I could give to such a task without
extreme fatigue, in mastering the language of