I breathed a grateful sigh. At least then, the divine creature who had captured my imagination would have her own hair and teeth! But I checked my eagerness, for I was suddenly aware of a new flame in Acquilla’s steel-blue eyes, and though the world was topsy-turvy and women more so than anything else, I suspected that certain primal characteristics had not changed. So I answered with a show of casualness. “Yes, there are a number of criticisms I could make, but probably they would not interest a prima donna.” “We’ll talk to her now.” Acquilla rose, and opening a partition in the wall, disappeared. A moment later, she returned. “We’ll get her in a few moments, as soon as central locates her. Of course, Bogardus, that was a television record taken two years ago, but surely that doesn’t astonish you?” “The theory, of course, had been established,” I answered with some pride, “but the complete achievement is astonishing. But then Acquilla, are there no more theatres?” “Why should there be any theatres?” said Acquilla. “A theatre was simply a limited convention, where only a few hundred persons at a time could enjoy a performance and for that, think how conventionalized your theatre and opera had to be! It was only your great poets, like Shakespeare and the Greeks, who intuitively wrote for the future. To think that your actors performed on a stage with artificial trees and skies! Surely you do not regret such performances when you can have life itself?” “Then every home has a theatre like this?” “Why, of course! How could anyone live differently? The theatre _is_ the home! The theatre is the world before us; history, music and the drama; the past and the actual. Surely, Bogardus, you recognize that the stage as you saw it, was simply a conventionalized barrier between the free imagination of the creative artist and his audience.” “I agree heartily,” I said enthusiastically, “and I can hardly wait to see more.” “Now you are greatly excited again,” said Acquilla, “and I thought to relax you. I think Bogardus, I shall have to send you off to sleep.” But at this moment, a low chiming rhythm sounded in the room, and Acquilla rising, disappeared through a partition. “We are lucky. Dianne is in Chicago and will dine with us tomorrow night. Come, she is eager to talk to you.” I rose and resolved to conceal my emotion, entered a secret closet in the wall, about twenty feet square, with some form of opaque glass forming the sides. Acquilla closed the door behind us and touched a switch. Instantly the figure of Dianne appeared before me, as distinctly as though she were sitting in the room. From the intense curiosity in her eyes, I divined that my presence was equally clear to her. “So you are the man from the twentieth century?” her lovely voice said as distinctly as though she were at my side. “You cannot imagine what excitement your arrival has caused. Tell me, what did you think of my Isolde?”