Romance Island

stings' coach-man's peremptory appeal, he continued to dispense stained ice-cream to the little denizens of No. 19 and the other houses in the row. The brougham,

it here, perhaps," suggested St. George, alighting

been longing to go into one of these house

Mr. Frothingham's perplexity always impressed one as duty-bo

rge's hand, "do look at those children's aprons. I'm afraid

lted together, and finally with many labials and uncouth pointings of shapely hands they indicated the door of the "first floor front," whose wooden shutters were closely barred.

lour. He had straight black hair, and eyes which one saw before one saw his face, and

the youth in perfe

im figures; and from a fluted pillar of exceeding lightness an enormous candelabrum shed clear radiance upon the objects in the room. The couches and divans were woven of some light reed, made with high fantastic backs, in perfect purity of line however, and laid with white mattresses. A little reed table showed slender pipes above its surface and these, at a touch from the boy, sent to a great height tiny columns of water that tinkled back to

rass, the feature man, and no doubt move even Chillingworth to approval. Chillingworth and Crass! Already they seemed strangers. St. George glanced at Miss Holland; she was looking from side to side, like a bird alighted among strange flowers; she met his eyes and dimpled in frank delight. Mrs. Hastings sat erectly beside he

nd softly, "it is an

ng, but without suspiciously scrutinizing details, like a census-taker. To appreciate did not seem to him properly to mean to assess. Miss Holland, he would have said

e surmounted by a great deal of snow-white hair. He was wearing garments of grey, cut in unusual and graceful lines, and his throat was closely wound in folds of s

here we may be assisted in some inquiries of the utmost importanc

host

Tabnit," he

esentation of the others, purposely omitted the name of Miss Holland. However

iation which I can never make,-do you know it

guests were not unnaturally speechless. Miss Holland, be

understood her mission. I followed quickly-I was without when you entered, but I came too late. Since then I h

gs found her voice. She curved the chain of her eye-glasses over her ear, thr

think your regret comes somewhat late in the day. It's all very well to suffer as you say over what your servant has tried to do. But what kind of

ted upon the table at his side. A disc of bronze, supported upon a carven tripod, caught the light and challenged attention to its delicate traceries; and within its border of asps and goat's horns he saw cut in the dull metal a sphinx crucified upon an upright cross-an exact facsimile of the device upon that strange

she does, she believes herself to be doing in my service. I

aspect of Mr. Augustus Frothingham, who appeared to be regarding the whole proceeding as

re infinitely removed; he had a youthful and somewhat imagina

ess," he said clearly, "that in taking M

retfully co

disc which he had taken from the table, a

aid coolly, "what it is that the people who use

rd Olivia's li

phinx that was on so many of the things that father sent. Oh," she cried to the p

e softened and glowed as if with peculiar delig

f, "that your race has already developed intu

, and turned again to St. George,

h," he recalled himself penitently to Miss Holland, "

dear Otho! Did he live where there are people like your frightful servant? Olivia, think! Maybe he is lying at the bo

allen in her lap, her side-combs slipping silently to the

embling, "when have yo

e others and his eyes returned to M

Holland," he answered, "was three mo

St. George and sent a sudden

s more, your Highness? Will you tell us why the death of his daughter shou

e, "and your penetration gives me good news-news that I had not hoped for, yet.

ring a tray on which were placed, in dishes of delicate-coloured filigree, strange dainties not to be cl

the hands of the boy. "It gives me pleasure, Miss Holland, to tell yo

wholly alien. He impressed St. George vaguely as one who seemed to have risen from the dead of the crudities of mere events and to be living in a rarer atmosphere. The

a distilled from the roots of rare exotics, and other things savoury and fantastic. So potent was the spell of the prince's hospitality, and so gracious the insistence with which he set before them the strange and odourous dishes, that even Olivia, eager almost to tears for news of her father, and Mrs. Hastings,

ptly began speaking, the while turning the fi

said simply, "where th

tings sa

er was, Olivia. I know I remembered it because it wasn't like the man W

world, as yet unknown to any save the island-men. We have guarded its existence, but I have no fear to tell you, for no mariner, unaided by an islander, could steer a course to its coasts. And I can tell you little about t

e name was written by the ancient Ph?nicians, has been ruled

d you to say, sir?" demand

ce smile

, beyond the confines of the Mediterranean. It is merely known that, in the period of which I speak, a more adventurous spirit began to be manifested, and the Straits of Gibraltar were passed and settlements were made in Iberia. But how far these adventurers actually penetrated has been r

or fear of exciting his imagination, uttered the

eed not detail; it is enough to say that their trireme was wrecked upon the coast of Yaque; and Abibaal and those who joined him-among them many members of the court circle and even of the royal family-settled and developed the island. And there the race has remained without taint of admixture, down to the present day. Of what was wrought on the island I can tell you little, though th

the anteroom to listen to the daily tales of invention, oppression and projects for which a continual procession of the more or less mentally deficient wished the Sentinel to stand sponsor. St. George remembered in particular

aint of one who deals with lunatics, "that the line of King Hiram, th

ince s

t their pride in their island is boundless. They see in her the advance guard of civilization, the peculiar people to whom have come to be intrusted many of the secrets of being. For I should tell you that my people live a life that is utterly beyond the ken of all, save a

ively, "that I hope your servant, for instance,

as if a child had laid a little

than another. One party wished to name the head of the House of the Litany, in Med, the King's city, who was the chief administrator of justice. Another,

old man in the frayed neckerchief and bagging pockets who had brought to the office of the Sentinel chart after chart about perpetual motion, until St. George and Amory had one day told him

oth these things?" asked

said the prince quietly, "when Wil

egardless of another soft explosion f

is our knowledge of the Fourth Dimension whic

foot. What if he were speaking the truth

the marriage contract with an alien; from which law only the royal house is exempt. Thus were the two needs of our land to be served by the means to which we had recourse. For there being no way to settle the difficulty, we vowed to leave the matter to Chance, that great patient arbiter of destinies of which your civilization takes no account, save to reduce it to slavery. Accordingly each inhabitant of the islan

George, "that you were able to

cult for me to believe that your appliances are so immature. We were using steamship navigation and l

that she had not the infectious vulgarity to doubt the possibility of what seemed impossible. This was one of the qualities of Mr. Augustus Frothingham, who had assumed an air of

low you. Why, you talk about things that don't exist! My husband, who was a very prac

orge: to believe in wireless telegraphy simply because it has been foun

t you could prove that they do not exist, just as a man from another planet could

se," said Ol

gs, "I think it's very unwomanly of you t

ce, "and perhaps I shall be able to interest you. The submarine return

ings that can happen. My brother Otho, my niece's father, was just thi

the circumstances attending the discovery of your brother

er?" cri

rince

had rewarded us. We crowned