husband, has travelled, and he has told me things I would almost
rather have not heard. One person he met believed the universe to
be, from top to bottom, a conjurer's cave."

"I should like to meet your husband."

"Well, we are going home now."

Maskull was on the point of inquiring whether she had any children,
but was afraid of offending her, and checked himself.

She read the mental question. "What need is there? Is not the whole
world full of lovely children? Why should I want selfish
possessions?"

An extraordinary creature flew past, uttering a plaintive cry of five
distinct notes. It was not a bird, but had a balloon-shaped body,
paddled by five webbed feet. It disappeared among the trees.

Joiwind pointed to it, as it went by. "I love that beast, grotesque
as it is--perhaps all the more for its grotesqueness. But if I had
children of my own, would I still love it? Which is best--to love
two or three, or to love all?"

"Every woman can't be like you, Joiwind, but it is good to have a few
like you. Wouldn't it be as well," he went on, "since we've got to
walk through that sun-baked wilderness, to make turbans for our
heads out of some of those long leaves?"

She smiled rather pathetically. "You will think me foolish, but