e the more in
your death and Leah's and my own. Teach me over again all I've ever
taught you, Barty--over and over again!

"Alas! perhaps you don't believe all this! How can I give you a
sign.

"There are many ways; but a law, of necessity inexorable, forbids
it. Such little entity as I possess would cease to be; it was all
but lost when I saved your life--and again when I told you that you
were the beloved of Julia Royce. It would not do for us Martians to
meddle with earthly things; the fat would soon be in the fire, I can
tell you!

"Try and trust me, Barty, and give me the benefit of any doubt.

"You have work planned out for many years to come, and are now
yourself so trained that you can do without me. You know what you
have still to say to mankind; never write a line about which you are
not sure.

"For another night or two you will be my host, and this splendid
frame of yours my hostelry; on y est tres bien. Be hospitable still
for a little while--make the most of me; hug me tight, squeeze me
warm!

"As soon as Leah is up and about and herself again you will know me
no more, and no more feel the north.

"Ah! you will never realize what it is for me to bid you good-bye,
my Barty, my Barty! All that is in your big heart and powerful brain
to feel of grief belongs to me, now that you are fast asleep. And
your genius for sorrow, which you have never really tested yet, is
as great as any gift you possess.

"Happy Barty, who have got to forty years without sounding the great
depths, and all through me! what will you do without your poor
devoted unknown Martia to keep watch over you and ward--to fight for
you like a wild-cat, if necessary?

"Leah must be your wild-cat now. She has it in her to be a tigress
when you are concerned, or any of her children! Next to you, Leah is
the darling of my heart; for it's your heart I make use of to love
her with.

"I want you to tell the world all about your Martia some day. They
may disbelieve, as you do; but good fruit will come of it in the
future. Martians will have a freer hand with you all, and that will
be a good thing for the earth; they were trained in a good hard
school--they are the Spartans of our universe.

"Such things will come to pass, before many years are over, as are
little dreamt of now,