I was never permitted to wander forth alone, so that I could not even
visit the spot on which I had alighted, and see if it were possible to
reascend to the mine. Nor even in the Silent Hours, when the household
was locked in sleep, could I have let myself down from the lofty floor
in which my apartment was placed. I knew not how to command the automata
who stood mockingly at my beck beside the wall, nor could I ascertain
the springs by which were set in movement the platforms that supplied
the place of stairs. The knowledge how to avail myself of these
contrivances had been purposely withheld from me. Oh, that I could but
have learned the use of wings, so freely here at the service of every
infant, then I might have escaped from the casement, regained the rocks,
and buoyed myself aloft through the chasm of which the perpendicular
sides forbade place for human footing!

Chapter XXVII.

One day, as I sat alone and brooding in my chamber, Taee flew in at the
open window and alighted on the couch beside me. I was always pleased
with the visits of a child, in whose society, if humbled, I was less
eclipsed than in that of Ana who had completed their education and
matured their understanding. And as I was permitted to wander forth with
him for my companion, and as I longed to revisit the spot in which I
had descended into the nether world, I hastened to ask him if he were
at leisure for a stroll beyond the streets of the city. His countenance
seemed to me graver than usual as he replied, "I came hither on purpose
to invite you forth."

We soon found ourselves in the street, and had not got far from the
house when we encountered five or six young Gy-ei, who were returning
from the fields with baskets full of flowers, and chanting a song in
chorus as they walked. A young Gy sings more often than she talks. They
stopped on seeing us, accosting Taee with familiar kindness, and me with
the courteous gallantry which distinguishes the Gy-ei in their manner
towards our weaker sex.

And here I may observe that, though a virgin Gy is so frank in
her courtship to the individual she favours, there is nothing that
approaches to that general breadth and loudness of manner which those
young ladies of the Anglo-Saxon race, to whom the distinguished epithet
of 'fast' is accorded, exhibit towards young gentlemen whom they do not
profess to love. No; the bearing of the Gy-ei towards males in ordinary
is very much that of high-bred me