re is so
much--to begin--how can I tell--"

"Tell him about Tao," Beth said.

"Tao!" I exclaimed.

"He leads those who came to your earth in the north," Miela went on. "He
was my"--she looked to Alan for the word--"my suitor there in the Great
City. He wished me for his wife--for the mother of his children. But
that--that was not what I wished."

"You'd better tell him about conditions in your world first, Miela," said
Alan. He spoke very gently, tenderly.

I had already seen, during supper, how he felt toward her; I could readily
understand it, too, for, next to Beth, she seemed the most adorable woman
I had ever met. There was nothing unusually strange about her, when her
wings were covered, except her quaint accent and sometimes curious
gestures; and no one could be with her long without feeling the sweet
gentleness of her nature and loving her for it.

"Tell him about your women," Beth added.

I noticed the affectionate regard she also seemed to have for Miela; and I
noticed, too, that there was in her face that vague look of sorrow that
was in her father's.

The habitable world of Mercury, Miela then went on to tell me, was divided
into three zones--light, twilight and darkness. There was no direct
sunlight in the Light Country--only a diffused daylight like the light on
our earth when the sky is clouded over. The people of the Light Country,
Miela's people, were the most civilized and the ruling race.

In the twilight zone around them, grading back to the Dark Country,
various other peoples dwelt, and occasionally warred with their neighbors
for possession of land in the light.

In the center of the Light Country, directly underneath the sun--that is,
where the sun, would always appear near the zenith--was the Fire Country.
Here, owing to violent storms, the atmospheric envelope of the planet was
frequently disturbed sufficiently to allow passage for the sun's direct
rays. Then would ensue in that locality, for a limited time, a heat so
intense as to destroy life. This Fire Country was practically uninhabited.

"You see, Bob," Alan interrupted, "the dark part of Mercury--that is the
side that continually faces away from the sun--is also practically
uninhabited. Only strange animals and savages live there. And the twilight
zones, and the ring of Light Country, with the exception of its center,
are too densely populated. This has caused an immense amount of trouble.
The Twilight People are an inferior r