He chuckled, said, "Give me your hand," led her forward. They had gone only a few yards, when his foot struck an obstacle. "Careful," he warned. "Here's a stair." They crept up to the next level. The familiar alcoves began again along the right hand wall. He tried the first one. It revealed a rectangular tank of water some ten by twenty feet. The walls were a mosaic of hand painted tile depicting Nemi, the rain god, descending to Mercury in a shower, Nemi searching for his bride, Nemi at the nuptial feast. The fourth wall was the one through which they were looking; and they couldn't see its decoration. From the realism of the ancient artist and the sequence of events, Jaro decided it was just as well they couldn't. "Whew," he said, "what a bathroom!" Joan put her eye to the peep hole. Jaro gaped in amazement. From a circular hole in the ceiling poured a curtain of rain. The shaft, he realized, must lead straight up through the different levels and through the roof. A raised dais with a rim around it received the rain in the center of the room. The surface of the dais he saw, was composed of a springy wire mesh through which the water drained into some subterranean channel. "The bed of Nemi," said Joan. "That's where the queen must sleep on her wedding night. Nemi is supposed to visit her in the rain." "What a clammy way to spend your wedding night," Jaro said, putting his eye back to the aperture. The appointments of the chamber were magnificent. It glowed with a rosy, pulsating light. The floor was carpeted with a shaggy white rug; a divan large enough to hold at least six people rested against the left hand wall. Around the walls ran murals depicting the exploits of Nemi: Nemi touching the red egalet which burst into flower, Nemi squeezing the juice from a cluster of Latonka grapes. The next room proved to be an ordinary sleeping chamber, obviously the bedroom of the queen for the remainder of the year. Jaro saw a beautiful Mercurian girl packing clothes and trinkets into a chest. The green band about her ankle marked her as a temple priestess. She was singing a lilting, happy refrain in the odd language of Mercury as she went about her work. Joan put her eye to the hole. "That's the ex-queen," she informed him. "She's getting ready to move to the apartments of the temple priestess." "She doesn't seem unhappy at her approaching bereavement," said Jaro. Joan sniffed. "Not likely." "I'm going in to talk to her," said Jaro. "Are you crazy?" cried Joan in alarm. She tugged at him arm, but he was already pulling back the secret entrance. * * * * * The queen had her back to them. Jaro closed the entrance, coughed discreetly. The girl spun around, her hand to her mouth. "How should I address her?" He whispered over his shoulder. "I don't think you need bother with formalities," observed Joan in a bitter voice, "not after your entrance." The queen said, "You are an Earthman."