erfection of his Celis; and
Terry--Terry made so many false starts and met so many rebuffs, that by
the time he really settled down to win Alima, he was considerably wiser.
At that, it was not smooth sailing. They broke and quarreled, over and
over; he would rush off to console himself with some other fair one--the
other fair one would have none of him--and he would drift back to Alima,
becoming more and more devoted each time.

She never gave an inch. A big, handsome creature, rather exceptionally
strong even in that race of strong women, with a proud head and sweeping
level brows that lined across above her dark eager eyes like the wide
wings of a soaring hawk.

I was good friends with all three of them but best of all with Ellador,
long before that feeling changed, for both of us.

From her, and from Somel, who talked very freely with me, I learned at
last something of the viewpoint of Herland toward its visitors.

Here they were, isolated, happy, contented, when the booming buzz of our
biplane tore the air above them.

Everybody heard it--saw it--for miles and miles, word flashed all over
the country, and a council was held in every town and village.

And this was their rapid determination:

"From another country. Probably men. Evidently highly civilized.
Doubtless possessed of much valuable knowledge. May be dangerous. Catch
them if possible; tame and train them if necessary This may be a chance
to re-establish a bi-sexual state for our people."

They were not afraid of us--three million highly intelligent women--or
two million, counting only grown-ups--were not likely to be afraid of
three young men. We thought of them as "Women," and therefore timid; but
it was two thousand years since they had had anything to be afraid
of, and certainly more than one thousand since they had outgrown the
feeling.

We thought--at least Terry did--that we could have our pick of them.
They thought--very cautiously and farsightedly--of picking us, if it
seemed wise.

All that time we were in training they studied us, analyzed us, prepared
reports about us, and this information was widely disseminated all about
the land.

Not a girl in that country had not been learning for months as much
as could be gathered about our country, our culture, our personal
characters. No wonder their questions were hard to answer. But I am
sorry to say, when we were at last brought out and--exhibited (I hate to
call it that, but that's what