has been accounted an extinct creature.

I believe that I did not move muscle nor limb until the sun had gone
down and the crowding darkness blurred my straining eyes and blotted
the great, silent, bright-eyed birds from sight.

Even then I could not tear myself away from the enclosure; I listened
to the strange, drowsy note of the male bird, the fainter responses of
the female, the thin plaints of the chicks, huddling under her breast;
I heard their flipper-like, embryotic wings beating sleepily as the
birds stretched and yawned their beaks and clacked them, preparing for
slumber.

"If you please," came a soft voice from the door, "Mr. Halyard awaits
your company to dinner."




IV


I dined well--or, rather, I might have enjoyed my dinner if Mr.
Halyard had been eliminated; and the feast consisted exclusively of a
joint of beef, the pretty nurse, and myself. She was exceedingly
attractive--with a disturbing fashion of lowering her head and raising
her dark eyes when spoken to.

As for Halyard, he was unspeakable, bundled up in his snuffy shawls,
and making uncouth noises over his gruel. But it is only just to say