s, as they are smaller than
you."

"Great Caesar!" ejaculated the Banker. "Don't let's go into that any
deeper!"

"Tell us more about Lylda," prompted the Very Young Man.

"You are insatiable on that point," laughed the Chemist. "Well, when we
left the sleigh, Lylda took me directly into the city of Arite. I found
it an orderly collection of low houses, seemingly built of uniformly
cut, highly polished gray blocks. As we passed through the streets, some
of which were paved with similar blocks, I was reminded of nothing so
much as the old jingles of Spotless Town. Everything was immaculately,
inordinately clean. Indeed, the whole city seemed built of some curious
form of opaque glass, newly scrubbed and polished.

"Children crowded from the doorways as we advanced, but Lylda dispersed
them with a gentle though firm, command. As we approached the sort of
castle I have mentioned, the reason for Lylda's authoritative manner
dawned upon me. She was, I soon learned, daughter of one of the most
learned men of the nation and was--handmaiden, do you call it?--to the
queen."

"So it was a monarchy?" interrupted the Big Business Man. "I should
never have thought that."

"Lylda called their leader a king. In reality he was the president,
chosen by the people, for a period of about what we would term twenty
years; I learned something about this republic during my stay, but not
as much as I would have liked. Politics was not Lylda's strong point,
and I had to get it all from her, you know.

"For several days I was housed royally in the castle. Food was served me
by an attendant who evidently was assigned solely to look after my
needs. At first I was terribly confused by the constant, uniform light,
but when I found certain hours set aside for sleep, just as we have
them, when I began to eat regularly, I soon fell into the routine of
this new life.

"The food was not greatly different from our own, although I found not a
single article I could identify. It consisted principally of vegetables
and fruits, the latter of an apparently inexhaustible variety.

"Lylda visited me at intervals, and I learned I was awaiting an audience
with the king. During these days she made rapid progress with my
language--so rapid that I shortly gave up the idea of mastering hers.

"And now, with the growing intimacy between us and our ability to
communicate more readily, I learned the simple, tragic story of her
race--new details, of course, b