beside her, looking
trustfully into her face. The great hall was filled with beautiful
women grouped together here and there, some seated and some standing.
They were all talking. Suddenly the Queen raised her hand and
commanded silence. She then rose and thus addressed the two
visitors:--

"You have come from below to the Realm of Women. Here we abide as you
behold us. Age and decay hold aloof from us, and we order our lives
with wisdom and modesty. Speak, if you have aught to ask."

"Pardon me, Madam," said Father TIME, somewhat rashly, "are we not
here on the planet Venus? and have I not somewhere heard strange tales
of what was done by ----?"

But CALLISTA interrupted him. She smiled a beautiful smile.

"Ah, yes," she said, "those stories are of the vanished past. Now we
blush even to think they might once have been true;" and surely enough
the whole charming assemblage became suffused with the prettiest
imaginable blush. "I will speak plainly with you," continued the
Queen; "for plain speech is best. No men live here. Therefore, we
dwell in peace. But we permit the fairest and best among our number
to descend from time to time to earth, and to dwell there in mortal
shapes for awhile. You may have seen them," she went on, mentioning
some names well known to _Mr. Punch_. "They are allowed to marry; but
only the wisest and noblest men may approach them. On earth their will
is free, and sometimes, alas, they fall away from righteousness, and
pass through bitter tribulation."

"Yes," said the Fleet Street Sage, "We call it the Divorce Court--your
Majesty will pardon the rough speech of an old man--and, somehow, we
don't seem able to get on without it. But here, of course, you have no
such institution?"

"No," replied the Queen. "There once was such a court among us,
hundreds of years ago, ere we had banished the men from our midst.
Now, however, we use the building in which petitions used to be heard
as our chief College. Come hither, ZOE," she proceeded, addressing
a sweet little girl of about fifteen. "Tell this wise gentleman your
solution of that pretty question relating to the concomitants of a
system of ternary quadrics."

Without a moment's hesitation, ZOE stated the question, and, what is
more, solved it with absolute correctness.

"Marvellous!" said _Mr. Punch_. "I congratulate you."

"CYNTHIA," said the Queen, beckoning with her rosy fingers to
another maiden, "will you recite to me your Pindaric O