We had not gone very far before we overtook a young girl of exceedingly prepossessing aspect, walking towards the city. She too, on seeing me, appeared to be struck with the same overwhelming and stupefying astonishment which had produced so great an effect on my first acquaintance. I could not understand it at all. There was nothing in the personal appearance of either the man or the girl which struck _me_ as extremely unusual. Why, then, should I be so extraordinarily wonderful in their eyes? When we came up with the girl the man stopped, and they talked in a very excited manner for some minutes. While they were so occupied it occurred to me that something very remarkable might have happened in the reintegration of my body on arrival at the surface of the planet. I might, for all I knew, be suffering from some grotesque distortion of features, or other bodily misfortune. But no, that was not the cause of their wonder, for, as the road ran close along the shore, I took the opportunity of surveying myself in the clear water, and the reflection showed, beyond all possibility of doubt, that there was nothing whatever astray with my personal appearance. Presently, hearing a slight noise behind me, I looked back, and saw a vehicle on its way to the city approaching us. It was running swiftly, although there were no horses attached, nor any visible motive power; the wheels ran on two steel rods which I had before noticed lying parallel to each other on the road. As soon as the vehicle reached the spot where we were standing it stopped at once, and the man and the girl making signs to me to get into it, I did so. In the vehicle were about a dozen people, of various adult ages, the youngest seemingly about twenty years old, the eldest about sixty. They were of both sexes, and, with one consent, they all, old and young, male and female alike, received me with the same intense, and, as it seemed to me, needless amazement as the first man and girl had shown. The vehicle resumed its course and ran on swiftly and with exceeding smoothness into the city. It was easy to see that I was the exclusive theme of the eager and excited discourse of the passengers. Their manner was very friendly, but their astonishment showed no signs of abating. A few minutes sufficed to bring us to the end of our journey. The car ran through a long and wide street, bordered on each side with rows of splendid trees. Through their foliage the houses were visible. Each house was separated from its neighbour by an interval of several yards; was but one story in height; and, so far as I was able to judge from a hasty glance in rapid passage, was very elaborately and tastefully ornamented. It was plain that land was abundant, and ground rents, if any, were trifling.