n the affirmative, and further added that I had a husband
and a son.

The effect of a confession so simple, and so natural, wounded and amazed
me.

The Preceptress started back with a look of loathing and abhorrence; but
it was almost instantly succeeded by one of compassion.

"You have much to learn," she said gently, "and I desire not to judge
you harshly. _You_ are the product of a people far back in the darkness
of civilization. _We_ are a people who have passed beyond the boundary
of what was once called Natural Law. But, more correctly, we have become
mistresses of Nature's peculiar processes. We influence or control them
at will. But before giving you any further explanation I will show you
the gallery containing the portraits of our very ancient ancestors."

She then conducted me into a remote part of the National College, and
sliding back a panel containing a magnificent painting, she disclosed a
long gallery, the existence of which I had never suspected, although I
knew their custom of using ornamented sliding panels instead of doors.
Into this I followed her with wonder and increasing surprise. Paintings
on canvas, old and dim with age; paintings on porcelain, and a peculiar
transparent material, of which I have previously spoken, hung so thick
upon the wall you could not have placed a hand between them. They were
all portraits of men. Some were represented in the ancient or mediaeval
costumes of my own ancestry, and some in garbs resembling our modern
styles.

Some had noble countenances, and some bore on their painted visages the
unmistakable stamp of passion and vice. It is not complimentary to
myself to confess it, but I began to feel an odd kind of companionship
in this assembly of good and evil looking men, such as I had not felt
since entering this land of pre-eminently noble and lovely women.

As I gazed upon them, arrayed in the armor of some stern warrior, or the
velvet doublet of some gay cavalier, the dark eyes of a debonair knight
looked down upon me with familiar fellowship. There was pride of birth,
and the passion of conquest in every line of his haughty, sensuous face.
I seemed to breathe the same moral atmosphere that had surrounded me in
the outer world.

_They_ had lived among noble and ignoble deeds I felt sure. _They_ had
been swayed by conflicting desires. _They_ had known temptation and
resistance, and reluctant compliance. _They_ had experienced the
treachery and ingratitude o