ff Terra had hardly halted before the
magnificent portal when a huge sheet of frosted glass rose silently from
the ground. They passed through and it fell behind them. They found
themselves in a great oval ante-chamber along each side of which stood
triple rows of strangely shaped trees whose leaves gave off a subtle and
most agreeable scent. The temperature here was several degrees higher,
in fact about that of an English spring day, and Zaidie immediately
threw open her big fur cloak, saying:

"These good people seem to live in Winter Gardens, don't they? I don't
think I shall want these things much while we're inside. I wonder what
dear old Andrew would have thought of this if we could have persuaded
him to leave the ship."

They followed their host through the ante-chamber towards a magnificent
pointed arch raised on clusters of small pillars each of a differently
coloured, highly polished stone, which shone brilliantly in a light
which seemed to come from nowhere. Another door, this time of pale
transparent blue glass, rose as they approached; they passed under it,
and as it fell behind them half a dozen figures, considerably shorter
and slighter than their host, came forward to meet them. He took off his
gloves and cape and thick outer covering, and they were glad to follow
his example for the atmosphere was now that of a warm June day.

The attendants, as they evidently were, took their wraps from them,
looking at the furs and stroking them with evident wonder; but with
nothing like the wonder which came into their big soft grey eyes when
they looked at Zaidie, who, as usual when she arrived on a new world,
was arrayed in one of her daintiest costumes.

Their host was now dressed in a tunic of a light blue material, which
glistened with a lustre greater than that of the finest silk. It reached
a little below his knees, and was confined at the waist by a sash of the
same colour but of somewhat deeper hue. His feet and legs were covered
with stockings of the same material and colour, and his feet, which were
small for his stature and exquisitely shaped, were shod with thin
sandals of a material which looked like soft felt, and which made no
noise as he walked over the delicately coloured mosaic pavement of the
street--for such it actually was--which ran past the gate.

When he removed his cape they expected to find that he was bald like the
Martians, but they were mistaken. His well-shaped head was covered with