Before I could digest the import of her last remark, the colored water closed over us and I immediately rose to the surface with the resiliency of a rubber ball. Indeed I presently found, such was the density of the water, that I remained floating on the surface without the slightest effort. At the same time, due no doubt to the electric charges, I was conscious of a feeling of extraordinary physical stimulation, like the caresses of a myriad of miniscule fingertips running over my body. “Relax and don’t talk, dear man,” said Acquilla, “and you will see how refreshed your mind will be.” At the same moment, above us, a panorama of shifting hues passed as the clouds pass on a clear autumn day, while the air was filled with the slumberous, subdued notes of a great orchestra; strains that vaguely pleasantly reminded me of the “Après-midi d’un Faun.” “The color organ was known in my day,” I said drowsily. “This is an entirely different principle,” said Acquilla. “Each chord has a color value so that as you listen to music, your eye at the same time receives an identical impression. It is an aesthetic emotion extremely restful and stimulating for the brain. But don’t talk. Relax completely for ten minutes.” I obeyed and experienced a sensation of being transported into a fairy world of morphine enchantment. I seemed to be drowsily gazing up at the rich deep green of velvety woodland recesses, which gradually became alive with the golden hues of autumn leaves. This dissolved into the deep crystalline blue of the open sky with lazy white clouds piling up in harmonious languor. All the shock and strain of the day on my perplexed brain passed away. I felt calm and unvexed. Then with the changing rhythms, the fleecy skies took on the brilliant red and purples of such a sunset as one remembers over the tourmaline waters of the Bay of Naples. The effect on me was one of a complete mental invigoration and a new eagerness to explore my incredible adventure. The voice of Acquilla recalled me. “Enough for the first time, Bogardus.” She rose from the pool, the water falling from her lovely glistening sides, like the petals of drifting cherry blossoms. We passed into a warmer room where my body dried immediately under the contact of pleasant vapors. Then resuming our robes we passed into another wing. “How do you feel?” “As though I had found the fountain of youth.” “That astonished you,” said Acquilla putting on a wig of silvery blue which became her immensely. “But of course in your time you bathed in porcelain boxes! And yet two thousand years before you the Romans had opened the way to the aesthetic life. Are you hungry?” “After two hundred and fifty years?” I exclaimed laughing, “ravenous!” “Yes, that is a long while,” replied Acquilla without a trace of a smile. As a matter of fact my laugh seemed to excite her curiosity, for she gave me a quick look in which I detected a touch of anxiety.