Romance Island

orgotten, as by and by they will forget the Taj Mahal and the Bon Marché. And at nine o'clock the next mor

irst day that the first men spend on Mars I wonder w

e farther on. I don't know how it will be, but if I felt on Mars

George, "as an idealist you a

ight arches, light capitals, airy traceries, and spaces of the hue of old ivory, held in heavenly quiet. The sense of colour, colour both captive and atmospheric, was a new and persistent delight, for it was colour purified, specialized, and infinitely extended in e

anaging oatmeal and eggs and china. One would have said that he had been brought up between the covers of an ancient history, nothing in consequence being so old or so new as to amaze him. Upon their late arrival the evening before he had instantly moved about his duties in all the quiet decorum with which he officiated in three rooms and a bath, emptying t

go and look out the window

ed to the nearest casement and

ay, sir. But it's easy to sleep, sir, no matter how warm the d

orge n

pressed him, "or Elissa setting off to found Carthag

tirred

d birds scrappin' in a palm tre

festivals or the funeral games or wherever you choose to-day. Or perhaps," he remembered with solicitude, "you woul

ir," said Rol

thrower, though," warned St. George, "and y

pray no. You are getting your p

r him as his food, sir," proclaimed

to think we've been at Tony's, before now. Do you remember," he asked raptly, "those brief and savoury banquets around one o'clock, at Tony's? From where Little C

George. It was all so incredible, and yet it was al

se. And yet, somehow, there is so little difference. Do you sup

his pipe, "is how it's going to look in pri

y was delicious, especially hi

, "you might as well try

y no

to hum an Orphic hymn. Isn't it about time for the prince?

ry smoking, strolling up and down, and examining the faint symbolic devices upon the walls' tiling, St. George stood before one of the casements, and looked over the aisles of flowering tree-tops to the grim, grey sides of Mount Khalak, inscrutable, inaccessible, now not even hinting at the walls and towers up

e say all the people who are-in love-know what it does mean," and at this

him with exquisite cordiality and his welcome to Amory was like a welcome unfeigned. He was clad in white of no remembered fashion, with the green gem burning on his breast, but his ma

n Yaque. We have invented no colonies useful for the luxury. How can it be-forgive me-that your people, who seem remote from poetry, should be the devisers

as he offered th

vice, your Highness. We are obliged to do

eorge was

yesterday. Perhaps he will see her to-day. And h

e on the summit of Mount Khalak, struck a momentary tragic note in mention of the mystery still mantling the absence of the king and repeated the announcement already made by Cassyrus, the premier, that in two days'

he said abruptly, "was the r

," replied St. George. "

suggested the prince lightly. "I am come to ask you to sp

s, brought, he mentioned in passing, from a despoiled temple of one of the C

pleasure in showing you that our nation is the L

pened its frame, and they were to step within. As the prince left the

o spend the day, R

ooked p

l about a bit,

anded St. Geor

"I always think a man can be

asantly, as a detachment of the guard

lo as he left him, "and be back early. We may

mplicity, "I'll be back quite

covered stone, the old human doubt assailed him. The very age of the walls was a protest against the assumption that there is a touchstone that is ageless. Even if there is, even if love is unchanging, the very temper of unconcern of his valet might be quite as persistent as love itself. But the gallery emptying itself into a great court open to the blue among grave

ing trees was everywhere, and wide roads pointed invitingly to undiscovered bournes, and o

r the glamourie of the hour and forget the substructure of events, if he can recall the pattern and forget the fabric, then he will understand the spirit that informed that first morning in Yaque. It was a morning all compact of wonder and delight-wonder at that which half-revealed itself, delight in the ever-present possibility that here, there, at any

taste, delighted the eye by leading it to lines of unguessed beauty. They were motors as the ancients would have built them if they had understood the trick of science, motors in which the lines of utility were veiled and taught to be subordinate. The speed attained was by no means great, and the motion was gentle and sacrificed to sil

nd the night-lamp of philosophy casting shadows. Yet as the prince exhibited wonders, one after another, St. George, dimly conscious that these are the things that men die to discover, would h

to suppose that combustion is the chief means of obtaining light and heat, or that Heaven provided divinely-beautiful forests for the express purpose of their being burned up; and when he told him that artificial light and heat were effected in a certain reservoir (built with a classic regard for the dignity of its use as a link with unspoken forces) St. George listened, and said over with attention the name of the substan

from Ph?nicia by our ancestors. But I did not know that the art is in practice anywhere in the world. Do you mean to assure me

George, wondering if he were responsibl

way toward the splendo

esis," he declared. "Is it possible that in this 'age of science' of yours it has not occurred to your people that if plants grow by slowly extracting

art with pride, "just as we do about telephones that will let people

tation. Any Egyptian juggler can produce it by using certain acids. We have improved the process until our fruits and vegetables are produced as they are needed, from hour to hour.

ha, and wondered if the Sentinel would start botanical gardens a

d with the object which it not so much decorated as purified. The most interesting of the thoroughfares led from the Eurych?rus, or public square, along the lagoon. This fair water, extending from Med to Melita, was greenly shored and dotted with strange little pleasure crafts with exquisite sweeping prows and silken canopies. Before a white temple, knee-deep in whose flowered ponds the ibises dozed and contemplated, was anchored the imperial trireme, with delicately-embroidered sails and prow and poop of forgotten metals. From within, temple music sounded softly and was never permitted to be silenced, as the flame of the Vestals might never be extinguished. Here on the shores had begun the morning traffic of itinerant merchants of Med and Melita, compelled by law to car

art electric victoria. This was one of the frequent Festival Embassies to Melita, to combine religious rites with mourning games and the dedication of the tablet, and there was considerable delay incident to the delivery of a wireless message to the dignitary with the tablet of the Semitic inscription. St. George wonder

hereafter even a lover must have forgiven the brief apostasy of his thought-"how

and struck into a magnificent country avenue borde

me. I dare say, however, that I may illustrate by something of which you know. Do there chance t

who can play on a musical instrument wit

id the prince

d of seven who can play most difficult piano compositions without

any one else?"

ous numbers and instantly give the accurate result. And he has no idea how he does that, an

ained them, Mr. St. Ge

ked St. George simply

ing else-than those known to your civilization. Let me assure you that such cases as these, far from being miracles and prodigies, are perfectly normal when once the principle is understood, as

orge, "that we need not lea

the possibilities of these children are in every one. But to my intense surprise I find that we of Yaque are the only ones in the world who understand how to use the

ultimate and fantastic place to which he had come. And yet he was real enough, and so, according to certain approved dialectic, perhaps these things were realities, too. He stole a glance at the prince's

y conceded. "You could not show me how it is managed, your H

shook his h

uld, at present, send a wireless communication without the apparatus-t

ishing his pince-nez and looking quite as if he were leaning over hansom-doors in th

nt page of a New York morning paper, for people to glance over with their coffee? Do you think

o that majestic avenue which terminates in the Eurych?rus before the Palace of the Litany. St. George's eye ea

broke in upon his dream, "no such plac

oubted blankly. Good Heavens. Maybe there had ar

the prince, "when I told you, in McDougle Street,

f St. George much as would the clang of th

cared so absorbingly about the Fourth Dimension. But what if this were all some trick and if

only length and breadth and did not understand the Third Dimension-thickness-you could not then conceive of lifting, say, a squ

was the familiar talk

nything about placing a cube upon a cube, or a pyramid upon a pyramid so that both occupy the same space at the same time. We of Yaque have mastered that principle also

speechlessly; then, in spite of hims

world who has not considered that problem and cast it aside, with the word t

the prince, "and

answer to a world of impossibilities already proved possible. But

our ocean liners sail clean through the island of Yaque,

laughed p

u must forgive me, but really I can think of no better comparison. I am quite as powerless now as you have been if you have ever attempted it. I can only assure yo

rge ref

kind of thing," he asked, "that t

ower dimensions. It is well-known to you that in a land whose people knew length and breadth, but no up and down, an object might be pushed, but never lifted up or put down. If it were to be lifted, such a people would believe it to have 'disappeared.' So, from you who know only three dimensions, Yaque has 'disappeared,' until one of us guides you here. Also we pass at w

embering how he had heard all this theorized about and smiled

his will, "if you hold this key to all knowledge, how is it that the king-

e sighed

y elude us. Not even the most advanced among us are perfect intuitionists. We have by no means reached that desirable and inevitable day when our minds

ly, "that the king has disappeared." Aloud he asked curiously conce

imply, "did your people ever consen

n that sent all thought of such insubstantialities as th

from whose depths was glimpsed a slim needle of a tower, rising, arrow-like, from the green. In the distance lay Med, with shining domes. The water of the lagoon gave brightness here and there among the hills. And as St. George a

rode in advance of the train of the prince, wheeled and thundered back, lifting glittering ha

ly back along the train, hailing the peaceful, slow-going machines into orderly retreat. They were all sufficiently amenable, for at

ely flashed into being, took definite shape, and his blood leaped to its music. Whose hand would be upo

rince. There was the faintest possible smile, and she was gone; and St. George, his heart pounding, sat staring stupidly after that shining cloud of dust, frantically wondering whether she could just possibly have seen him. For this was no trick of the imagination, his galloping heart told him that. And whether or not Yaque was a place, the world, the world was within his grasp, instinct with possibilities

r girl?" he asked

l?" St. George

with a look that could be mad

ng dust by the wheels of Olivia's auto. Olivia's auto. St. George was secretly sayi

rican has been able to govern us. Chance

rge followed-to a far winding dot in that opal valley, a mere spec

we of Ph?nicia seem to have lost since the wealth of the world accumulated at her ports and she gave her trust to the hands of mariners and mercenaries, and later bowed to the conq

e nodded,

ness," he said simply, and in his

revealed themselves linked with incommunicable beauty, sat in the prince's motor, his eyes searching the horizon for that fleeing speck of silver and pink. It did not appear again. And when the train of the pri

tter what he says, I shall go. Doesn't Amory realize that we've been m

erging light-the nameless radiance already penetrating the dusk-the pri

important-to me. You will, I hope, do honour to the occasion by your presence. This evening

Highness?" repeated

ed, "and Balator, the commander of the guard, will rece

ortico before them, an

thal of t

own in foreboding. He turned, hardly daring

rawl; but there were times-now, for example, when all that the

rince of a cannibal island! Wouldn't Chi