t my
Sons--so greatly did their patriotism and reverence for the Circles
predominate over mere blind affection--might not feel compelled to hand
me over to the Prefect, if they found me seriously maintaining the
seditious heresy of the Third Dimension.

But the first thing to be done was to satisfy in some way the curiosity
of my Wife, who naturally wished to know something of the reasons for
which the Circle had desired that mysterious interview, and of the
means by which he had entered the house. Without entering into the
details of the elaborate account I gave her,--an account, I fear, not
quite so consistent with truth as my Readers in Spaceland might
desire,--I must be content with saying that I succeeded at last in
persuading her to return quietly to her household duties without
eliciting from me any reference to the World of Three Dimensions. This
done, I immediately sent for my Grandson; for, to confess the truth, I
felt that all that I had seen and heard was in some strange way
slipping away from me, like the image of a half-grasped, tantalizing
dream, and I longed to essay my skill in making a first disciple.

When my Grandson entered the room I carefully secured the door. Then,
sitting down by his side and taking our mathematical tablets,--or, as
you would call them, Lines--I told him we would resume the lesson of
yesterday. I taught him once more how a Point by motion in One
Dimension produces a Line, and how a straight Line in Two Dimensions
produces a Square. After this, forcing a laugh, I said, "And now, you
scamp, you wanted to make me believe that a Square may in the same way
by motion 'Upward, not Northward' produce another figure, a sort of
extra Square in Three Dimensions. Say that again, you young rascal."

At this moment we heard once more the herald's "O yes! O yes!" outside
in the street proclaiming the Resolution of the Council. Young though
he was, my Grandson--who was unusually intelligent for his age, and
bred up in perfect reverence for the authority of the Circles--took in
the situation with an acuteness for which I was quite unprepared. He
remained silent till the last words of the Proclamation had died away,
and then, bursting into tears, "Dear Grandpapa," he said, "that was
only my fun, and of course I meant nothing at all by it; and we did not
know anything then about the new Law; and I don't think I said anything
about the Third Dimension; and I am sure I did not say one word