the one here at our feet?" And again the boy shook his head, wondering at
my eagerness, and pointed to Mars, saying gently as he did so the fact was
certain as the day above us, nothing was marvellous but my questioning.

Mars! oh, dreadful, tremendous, unexpected! With a cry of affright,
and bringing my fist down on the table till all the cups upon it leapt,
I told him he lied--lied like a simpleton whose astronomy was as rotten
as his wit--smote the table and scowled at him for a spell, then turned
away and let my chin fall upon my breast and my hands upon my lap.

And yet, and yet, it might be so! Everything about me was new and
strange, the crisp, thin air I breathed was new; the lukewarm sunshine
new; the sleek, long, ivory faces of the people new! Yesterday--was it
yesterday?--I was back there--away in a world that pines to know of other
worlds, and one fantastic wish of mine, backed by a hideous, infernal
chance, had swung back the doors of space and shot me--if that boy spoke
true--into the outer void where never living man had been before: all
my wits about me, all the horrible bathos of my earthly clothing on me,
all my terrestrial hungers in my veins!

I sprang to my feet and swept my hands across my eyes. Was that a dream,
or this? No, no, both were too real. The hum of my faraway city still
rang in my ears: a swift vision of the girl I had loved; of the men I
had hated; of the things I had hoped for rose before me, still dazing
my inner eye. And these about me were real people, too; it was real
earth; real skies, trees, and rocks--had the infernal gods indeed heard,
I asked myself, the foolish wish that started from my lips in a moment of
fierce discontent, and swept me into another sphere, another existence?
I looked at the boy as though he could answer that question, but there
was nothing in his face but vacuous wonder; I clapped my hands together