ectioners, who supply twice a day the households in
their vicinity; unmarried men taking their meals at the shop. The
preparation of fruit, roasted grain, beverages consisting of juices
mixed with a prepared nectar, and the vegetables from the garden,
which enter into the composition of every meal, are the only culinary
cares of the ladies of the family. Everything can be warmed or
freshened on the stove which forms a part of that electric machinery
by which in every household the baths and lights are supplied and the
house warmed at night. The ladies have therefore very little household
work, and the greater part of this is performed under their
superintendence by the animals, which are almost as useful as any
human slaves on earth, with the one unquestionable advantage that they
cannot speak, and therefore cannot be impertinent, inquisitive, or
treacherous. No fermented liquors form part of the Martial diet; but
some narcotics resembling haschisch and opium are much relished. When
the official had retired, I said to my host--

"I thought it best to raise no question or objection in signing the
contract put before me with your sanction; but you must be aware, in
the first place, that I have no means here of performing the pecuniary
part of the covenant, no means of providing either maintenance or
pin-money."

The explanation of the latter phrase, which was immediately demanded,
produced not a little amusement, after which Esmo replied gravely--

"It will be very easy for you, if necessary, to realise a competence
in the course of half a year. A book relating your adventures, and
describing the world you have left, would bring you in a very
comfortable fortune; and you might more than double this by giving
addresses in each of our towns, which, if only from the curiosity our
people would entertain to see you with their own eyes, would attract
crowded audiences. You could get a considerable sum for the exclusive
right to take your likeness; and, if you chose to explain it, you
might fix your own price on the novel motive power you have
introduced. But there is another point in regard to the contract which
you have overlooked, but which I was bound to bear in mind. What you
have promised is, I believe, what Eveena would have obtained from any
suitor she was likely to accept. But since you left the matter
entirely to my discretion, I am bound to make it impossible that you
should be a loser; and this document (and he ha