at our approach and pulling a blue convolvulus bud to pieces--a charming
picture of dainty idleness. Anything so soft, so silken as that little
lady was never seen before. Who am I, a poor quarter-deck loafer,
that I should attempt to describe what poet and painter alike would
have failed to realise? I know, of course, your stock descriptives:
the melting eye, the coral lip, the peachy cheek, the raven tress;
but these were coined for mortal woman--and this was not one of them.
I will not attempt to describe the glorious tenderness of those eyes she
turned upon me presently; the glowing radiance of her skin; the infinite
grace of every action; the incredible soul-searching harmony of her voice,
when later on I heard it--you must gather something of these things as
I go--suffice it to say that when I saw her there for the first time in
the plenitude of her beauty I fell desperately, wildly in love with her.

Meanwhile, even the most infatuated of mortals cannot stare for ever
without saying something. The grating of our prow against the garlanded
side of the royal barge roused me from my reverie, and nodding to An, to
imply I would be back presently, I lightly jumped on to Hath's vessel,
and, with the assurance of a free and independent American voter,
approached that individual, holding out my palm, and saying as I did so,

"Shake hands, Mr. President!"

The prince came forward at my bidding and extending his hand for mine.
He bowed slow and sedately, in that peculiar way the Martians have,
a ripple of gratified civility passing up his flesh; lower and lower he
bowed, until his face was over our clasped hands, and then, with simple
courtesy, he kissed my finger-tips! This was somewhat embarrassing.
It was not like the procedure followed in Courts nearer to Washington
than this one, as far as my reading went, and, withdrawing my fingers