Year by year I came nearer to the special purpose of my education. As we passed over the family groups of the island, and learned their sciences and arts, both Thyriel and myself began to feel drawn to one branch of investigation above all others. Every family had a special department of the civilisation assigned to it, and for generations it had cultivated this. To prevent narrowness of view in its members, and to enable all to understand the value and purpose of the work of each, a long tract of their youth was devoted to a bird’s-eye view of the departments of human knowledge and progress. And, that no section of life might be left at the mercy of accident, there worked with the representatives of every family one or two supernumeraries. Thus new blood was introduced, for the alien was generally chosen from a family not even distantly connected, and had such a nature and temperament as would be likely to lead to marriage and to the best results in posterity. There was one family grove to which I was specially drawn. The faces of the dead seemed to me exquisitely beautiful; the natures that shone through their petrified bodies attracted me with tenfold power. Every day as I entered Fialume I felt inclined to bend my steps thither, and the close of the day generally found me amongst them. Oolmo tried with some amusement to himself to break me of the habit, which yet grew stronger and stronger. And Thyriel showed the same tendency. Perhaps one feature which gave great attraction to the place was its seclusion; it was almost the only family grove that had not two or three studying the records. Here we were generally left to our own companionship; for Oolmo had often to go when we arrived there; and, with our common tastes, we found the time far too short. At last I came upon the explanation. We were studying the growth of some feature through the generations, and I had remarked to Thyriel how like she was to this family in character and appearance, when suddenly the foliage parted near where we stood and disclosed three figures, two of whom seemed to my undiscriminative eyes facsimiles of the last of the group which had been ireliumised. The feeling of worship was aroused in me, for I felt in them the beautiful nature of Thyriel, and besides this the atmosphere of years and experience mellowing it and making it seem loftier and more divine. The third was different and yet as noble, and when I gazed into her face I found the solution of a problem that had begun to perplex me, the source of those characteristics of Thyriel which made her different from the two others and from the family group. The last was her mother; the other two were her father and aunt. This was the treasure-house and sleeping place of her ancestry. Her own relationship had instinctively drawn her to it, and my natural kinship with her had attracted me there.