g to radiate waves of the characteristic phosphorescent
light. I found it cold, pure-tasting water, and I drank long and deeply.
Then I remember lying down upon the mossy bank, and in a moment, utterly
worn out, I again fell asleep."

CHAPTER IV

LYLDA

"I was awakened by the feel of soft hands upon my head and face. With a
start I sat up abruptly; I rubbed my eyes confusedly for a moment, not
knowing where I was. When I collected my wits I found myself staring
into the face of a girl, who was kneeling on the ground before me. I
recognized her at once--she was the girl of the microscope.

"To say I was startled would be to put it mildly, but I read no fear in
her expression, only wonderment at my springing so suddenly into life.
She was dressed very much as I had seen her before. Her fragile beauty
was the same, and at this closer view infinitely more appealing, but I
was puzzled to account for her older, more mature look. She seemed to
have aged several years since the last evening I had seen her through
the microscope. Yet, undeniably, it was the same girl.

"For some moments we sat looking at each other in wonderment. Then she
smiled and held out her hand, palm up, speaking a few words as she did
so. Her voice was soft and musical, and the words of a peculiar quality
that we generally describe as liquid, for want of a better term. What
she said was wholly unintelligible, but whether the words were strange
or the intonation different from anything I had ever heard I could not
determine.

"Afterwards, during my stay in this other world, I found that the
language of its people resembled English quite closely, so far as the
words themselves went. But the intonation with which they were given,
and the gestures accompanying them, differed so widely from our own that
they conveyed no meaning.

"The gap separating us, however, was very much less than you would
imagine. Strangely enough, though, it was not I who learned to speak her
tongue, but she who mastered mine."

The Very Young Man sighed contentedly.

"We became quite friendly after this greeting," resumed the Chemist,
"and it was apparent from her manner that she had already conceived her
own idea of who and what I was.

"For some time we sat and tried to communicate with each other. My words
seemed almost as unintelligible to her as hers to me, except that
occasionally she would divine my meaning, clapping her hands in childish
delight. I made ou