e Melody in F," and as the poignantly beautiful
strains poured forth from that wonderful violin, she knew that she had
her audience with her. Though so intellectual that they themselves were
incapable of producing music of real depth of feeling, they could
understand and could enjoy such music with an appreciation impossible to
a people of lesser mental attainments; and their profound enjoyment of
her playing, burned into her mind by the telepathic, almost hypnotic
power of the Norlaminian mentality, raised her to heights of power she
had never before attained. Playing as one inspired, she went through one
tremendous solo after another--holding her listeners spellbound, urged
on by their intense feeling to carry them further and ever further into
the realm of pure emotional harmony. The bell which ordinarily signaled
the end of the period of relaxation did not sound; for the first time in
thousands of years the planet of Norlamin deserted its rigid schedule of
life--to listen to one Earth-woman, pouring out her very soul upon her
incomparable violin.

The final note of "Memories" died away in a diminuendo wail, and the
musician almost collapsed into Seaton's arms. The profound silence, more
impressive far than any possible applause, was soon broken by Dorothy.

"There--I'm all right now, Dick. I was about out of control for a
minute. I wish they could have had that on a recorder--I'll never be
able to play like that again if I live to be a thousand years old."

"It is on record, daughter. Every note and every inflection is
preserved, precisely as you played it," Orlon assured her. "That is our
only excuse for allowing you to continue as you did, almost to the point
of exhaustion. While we cannot really understand an artistic mind of the
peculiar type to which yours belongs, yet we realized that each time you
play you are doing something that no one, not even yourself, can ever do
again in precisely the same subtle fashion. Therefore we allowed, in
fact encouraged, you to go on as long as that creative impulse should
endure--not merely for our pleasure in hearing it, great though that
pleasure was, but in the hope that our workers in music could, by a
careful analysis of your product, determine quantitatively the exact
vibrations or overtones which make the difference between emotional and
intellectual music."

CHAPTER XI

Into a Sun

As Rovol and Seaton approached the physics laboratory at the beginning
o