"At any rate you see me still unmarried. I have found no time
to palter with the fripperies of women."

"Ah, but these colonists here are crude and unfascinating.
Wait till you see the ladies of the court, my ascetic."

"It comes to my mind," I said dryly, "that I lived in Atlantis
before I came out here, and at that time I used to see as much of
court life as most men. Yet then, also, I felt no inducement to
marry."

Tatho chuckled. "Atlantis has changed so that you would hardly
know the country to-day. A new era has come over everything,
especially over the other sex. Well do I remember the women of
the old King's time, how monstrous uncomely they were, how
little they knew how to walk or carry themselves, how painfully
barbaric was their notion of dress. I dare swear that your ladies
here in Yucatan are not so provincial to-day as ours were then.
But you should see them now at home. They are delicious. And
above all in charm is the Empress. Oh, Deucalion, you shall see
Phorenice in all her glorious beauty and her magnificence one of
these fine days soon, and believe me you will go down on your knees
and repent."

"I may see, and (because you say so) I may alter my life's
ways. The Gods make all things possible. But for the present I
remain as I am, celibate, and not wishful to be otherwise; and so
in the meantime I would hear the continuance of your history."