"You talk as if it were merely a question of a drive."

"I think we have proved that it is not more dangerous to go from one
planet to another than it is to get about town."

"If an accident _should_ occur. If Carmichael cannot return--"

"I shall be much happier here than I should be on the earth. Even if I
had never met Alumion I think I should come back and stay on Venus."

"It is certainly a better world, as far as we have seen, but remember
your own words, 'Man was made for the earth.' Don't you think this
eternal summer--these Elysian Fields--would pall upon you in course of
time? Constant bliss, like everlasting honey, might cloy your earthly
palate, and make you sigh for our poor, old, wicked, miserable world,
that in spite of all its faults and crimes, is yet so interesting, so
variable, so dramatic--so dear."

"Never. With Alumion even Hades would be an Elysium."

"Think of your friends at home, and what you owe to them; how they will
miss you."

"I cannot be of much service to them. They will soon forget me."

"Perhaps you are mistaken there," said Gazen, assuming a more serious
air. "In any case I for one shall miss you. In fact, to speak plainly, I
shall feel aggrieved--hurt. You and I are old friends, and when you
asked me to join you in this expedition I was moved by friendship as
well as interest. Certainly, I never dreamed that you would desert the