A Honeymoon in Space

  CHAPTER XV

  The wondering visitors from far-off Terra had hardly halted before themagnificent portal when a huge sheet of frosted glass rose silently fromthe ground. They passed through and it fell behind them. They foundthemselves in a great oval ante-chamber along each side of which stoodtriple rows of strangely shaped trees whose leaves gave off a subtle andmost agreeable scent. The temperature here was several degrees higher,in fact about that of an English spring day, and Zaidie immediatelythrew open her big fur cloak, saying:

  "These good people seem to live in Winter Gardens, don't they? I don'tthink I shall want these things much while we're inside. I wonder whatdear old Andrew would have thought of this if we could have persuadedhim to leave the ship."

  They followed their host through the ante-chamber towards a magnificentpointed arch raised on clusters of small pillars each of a differentlycoloured, highly polished stone, which shone brilliantly in a lightwhich seemed to come from nowhere. Another door, this time of paletransparent blue glass, rose as they approached; they passed under it,and as it fell behind them half a dozen figures, considerably shorterand slighter than their host, came forward to meet them. He took off hisgloves and cape and thick outer covering, and they were glad to followhis example for the atmosphere was now that of a warm June day.

  The attendants, as they evidently were, took their wraps from them,looking at the furs and stroking them with evident wonder; but withnothing like the wonder which came into their big soft grey eyes whenthey looked at Zaidie, who, as usual when she arrived on a new world,was arrayed in one of her daintiest costumes.

  Their host was now dressed in a tunic of a light blue material, whichglistened with a lustre greater than that of the finest silk. It reacheda little below his knees, and was confined at the waist by a sash of thesame colour but of somewhat deeper hue. His feet and legs were coveredwith stockings of the same material and colour, and his feet, which weresmall for his stature and exquisitely shaped, were shod with thinsandals of a material which looked like soft felt, and which made nonoise as he walked over the delicately coloured mosaic pavement of thestreet--for such it actually was--which ran past the gate.

  When he removed his cape they expected to find that he was bald like theMartians, but they were mistaken. His well-shaped head was covered withlong, thick hair of a colour something between bronze and grey. A broadband of metal looking like light gold passed round the upper part of hisforehead, and from under this the hair fell in gentle waves to below hisshoulders.

  For a few moments Zaidie and Redgrave stared about them in frank andsilent wonder. They were standing in a broad street running in astraight line to what seemed to be several miles along the edge of acity of crystal. It was lined with double rows of trees with beds ofbrilliantly coloured flowers between them. From this street others wentoff at right angles and at regular intervals. The roof of the cityappeared to be composed of an infinity of domes of enormous extent,supported by tall clusters of slender pillars standing at the streetcorners. The general level of the roof seemed about three hundred feetabove the ground, and the summits of the domes some fifty feet higher.

  The houses, which were all square, were, as a rule, about forty feethigh. The roofs were covered with gardens and shrubberies, from whichcreepers, bearing brillantly coloured leaves and flowers, hung downabout the windows in carefully arranged festoons. The walls werecomposed of the opaque mica-like glass, relieved by pillars and archeddoorways and windows. The windows, of French form, were of clear glass,and mostly stood open. A sweet, cool zephyr of hardly perceptiblestrength appeared to be blowing along the street and over the house-topsand in the vast airy space above the roofs.

  Brightly plumaged birds were flitting about among the branches of gianttrees, and keeping up a perpetual chorus of song.

  Presently their host touched Redgrave on the shoulder and pointed to afour-wheeled car of light framework and exquisite design, containingseats for four besides the driver, or guide, who sat behind. He held outhis hand to Zaidie, and handed her to one of the front seats just as anEarth-born gentleman might have done. Then he motioned to Redgrave tosit beside her, and mounted behind them.

  The car immediately began to move silently, but with considerable speed,along the left-hand side of the outer street, which, like all theothers, was divided by narrow strips of russet-coloured grass andflowering shrubs.

  In a few minutes it swung round to the right, crossed the road, andentered a magnificent avenue, which, after a run of some four miles,ended in a vast, park-like square, measuring at least a mile each way.

  The two sides of the avenue were busy with cars like their own, somecarrying six people, and others only the driver. Those on each side ofthe road all went in the same direction. Those nearest to the broadside-walks between the houses and the first row of trees went at amoderate speed of five or six miles an hour, but along the inner sides,near the central line of trees, they seemed to be running as high asthirty miles an hour. Their occupants were nearly all dressed in clothesmade of the same glistening, silky fabric as their host wore, but thecolourings were of infinite variety.

  It was quite easy to distinguish between the sexes, although in staturethey were almost equal. The men were nearly all clothed as their hostwas. The colours of their garments were quieter, and there was littleattempt at personal adornment, though many wore bands of an intenselybright, sky-blue metal round their arms above the elbow, and others worebelts and necklaces of links composed of this and two other metalsresembling gold and aluminum, but of an exceedingly high lustre.

  The women were dressed in flowing garments something after the Greekstyle, but they were of brighter hues and much more lavishly embroideredthan the men's tunics were. They also wore much more jewellery. Indeed,some of the younger ones glittered from head to foot with polished metaland gleaming stones. There was one more difference which they quicklynoticed. The men's hair, like their host's, was nearly always wavy, butthat of the women, especially the younger, was a mass of either naturalor artificial curls, short and crisp about the head, and flowing down inglistening ringlets to their waists.

  "Could any one ever have dreamt of such a lovely place?" said Zaidie,after their wondering eyes had become accustomed to the marvels aboutthem, "and yet--oh dear, now I know what it reminds me of! Flammarion'sbook, 'The End of the World,' where he describes the remnants of thehuman race dying of cold and hunger on the Equator in places somethinglike this. I suppose the life of poor Ganymede is giving out, and that'swhy they've got to live in magnified exposition buildings, poor things!"

  "Poor things!" laughed Redgrave. "I'm afraid I can't agree with youthere, dear. I never saw a jollier-looking lot of people in my life. Idaresay you're quite right, but they certainly seem to view theirapproaching end with considerable equanimity."

  "Don't be horrid, Lenox! Fancy talking in that cold-blooded way aboutsuch delightful-looking people as these, why, they are even nicer thanour dear bird-folk on Venus, and of course they are a great deal morelike ourselves."

  "Wherefore it stands to reason that they must be a great deal nicer!" hereplied, with a glance which brought a brighter flush to her cheeks.Then he went on, "Ah, now I see the difference."

  "What difference? Between what?"

  "Between the daughter of Earth and the daughters of Ganymede," hereplied. "You can blush, and I don't think they can. Haven't you noticedthat, although they have the most exquisite skins and beautiful eyes andhair and all that sort of thing, not a man or woman of them has anycolouring? I suppose that's the result of living for generations in ahothouse."

  "Very likely," she said; "but has it struck you also that all the girlsand women are either beautiful or handsome, and all the men, except theones that seem to be servants or slaves, are something like Greek gods,or, at least, the sort of men you see on the Greek sculptures?"

  "Survival of the fittest, I presume. These are probably the descendantsof the highest races of Ganymede; the people who conceived the idea ofprolong
ing the life of their race and were able to carry it out. Theinferior races would either perish of starvation or become theirservants. That's what will happen on Earth, and there is no reason whyit shouldn't have happened here."

  As he said this the car swung out round a broad curve into the centre ofthe great square, and a little cry of amazement broke from Zaidie's lipsas her glance roamed over the multiplying splendours about her.

  In the centre of the square, in the midst of smooth lawns andflower-beds of every conceivable shape and colour, and groves offlowering trees, stood a great domed building, which they approachedthrough an avenue of overarching trees interlaced with floweringcreepers.

  The car stopped at the foot of a triple flight of stairs of dazzlingwhiteness which led up to a broad arched doorway. Several groups ofpeople were sprinkled about the avenue and steps and the wide terracewhich ran along the front of the building. They looked with keen, butperfectly well-mannered surprise at their strange visitors, and seemedto be discussing their appearance; but not a step was taken towardsthem, nor was there the slightest sign of anything like vulgarcuriosity.

  "What perfect manners these dear people have!" said Zaidie, as theydismounted at the foot of the staircase. "I wonder what would happen ifa couple of them were to be landed from a motor-car in front of theCapitol at Washington. I suppose this is their Capitol, and we've beenbrought here to be put through our facings. What a pity we can't talk tothem! I wonder if they'd believe our story if we could tell it."

  "I've no doubt they know something of it already," replied Redgrave;"they're evidently people of immense intelligence. Intellectually, Idaresay, we're mere children compared with them, and it's quite possiblethat they have developed senses which we have no idea of."

  "And perhaps," added Zaidie, "all the time that we are talking to eachother our friend here is quietly reading everything that is going on inour minds."

  Whether this was so or not their host gave no sign of comprehension. Heled them up the steps and through the great doorway, where he was met bythree splendidly dressed men even taller than himself.

  "I feel beastly shabby among all these gorgeously attired personages,"said Redgrave, looking down at his plain tweed suit, as they wereconducted with every manifestation of politeness along the magnificentvestibule into which the door opened.

  "And I'm sure I am quite a dowdy in comparison with these lovelycreatures," added Zaidie, "although this dress was made in Paris. Lenox,if things are for sale here you'll have to buy me one of those costumes,and we'll take it back and get one made like it. I wonder what they'dthink of me dressed in one of those costumes at a ball at theWaldorf-Astoria."

  Before he could make a suitable reply, a door at the end of thevestibule opened and they were ushered into a large hall which wasevidently a council-chamber. At the further end of it were threesemi-circular rows of seats made of a polished silvery metal, and in thecentre and raised slightly above them another under a canopy of sky-bluesilk. This seat and six others were occupied by men of most venerableaspect, in spite of the fact their hair was just as long and thick andglossy as their host's or even as Zaidie's own.

  The ceremony of introduction was exceedingly simple. Though they couldnot, of course, understand a word he said, it was evident from hiseloquent gestures that their host described the way in which they hadcome from Space and landed on the surface of the World of the CrystalCities, as Zaidie subsequently re-christened Ganymede.

  The President of the Senate or Council spoke a few sentences in a deepmusical tone. Then their host, taking their hands, led them up to hisseat, and the President rose and took them by both hands in turn. Then,with a grave smile of greeting, he bent his head and resumed his seat.They joined hands in turn with each of the six senators present, bowedtheir farewells in silence, and then went back with their host to thecar.

  They ran down the avenue, made a curving sweep round to the left--forall the paths in the great square were laid in curves, apparently toform a contrast to the straight streets--and presently stopped beforethe porch of one of the hundred palaces which surrounded it. This wastheir host's house, and their home during the rest of their sojourn onGanymede.