"Talking of wings, do you object if I see more closely the cut and style of your wings? I never saw before a human creature possessing a pair." After a moment's hesitancy she raised her right arm and with it the one wing unfolded. I ventured near enough to see the intricate network of muscle and bone woven around the arm and filling the space between the raised arm and the side of Plume's body. She was surprised at the interest I manifested in the human wing. After this she offered to furnish an able escort to conduct me to several points of interest. All this I declined and informed my talented friend that I must hasten away to another world. "Let me go with you," she strongly insisted. "Your wings are not of the right kind," I replied hurriedly. "They are strong enough to bear us both," were her inviting words. "But not beyond the atmosphere of this world," I explained. I quietly arose, scanned once more the beautiful valley before me, and indicated that I was about to wane into the invisible. Then did her womanly nature assert its supremacy and she, for the first time, touched my hand imploringly: "Have I been dreaming, or do my eyes deceive me? How can all this be true? Your hand is sensible to my touch. I implore you to remain until I speak to you more about the sciences of your world." In all my journey I never yielded to persuasion before. But somehow I consented to spend a season longer of most charming fellowship, talking of the elements in nature, their chemical affinities, and the laws of matter and mind. Plume was unusually bright in the philosophies, and I gathered from her many truths which had always before been hidden to me. Finally I became rigid in my determination to leave, for I knew that I could not stay. "Grant me one request," she begged. "Let me hear it." "Promise me that you will return." "Impossible, impossible!" The parting that followed was indeed memorable. Without any further notice I suddenly vanished, but still tarried invisibly in close proximity. Plume was now left in deep bewilderment, and I could not even conjecture the details of her warring thoughts. Finally I saw that for which I had tarried. Plume lifted her wings and flew skyward as beautifully and gracefully as any bird of our earthly air. CHAPTER XXII. Heaven. After my ambition to visit one thousand worlds had been realised, and I was darting toward the confines of our own little Solar System, instinctively I looked out once more over the vast stretches of space. All around me, at amazing distances, loomed up the millions of spheres which I had not visited by reason of my limited time. I felt like some one who, after gaining his first thousand dollars, has a wild craving to accumulate ten or one hundred thousand more.