The fruits were indeed delicious and refreshing; the drinks cooling and exhilarating: to Elwood and Templemore they were as nectar and ambrosia, and they said so, and asked many questions concerning them. But, seeing that the only information they received was a string of names that conveyed to them no meaning, they added little to their stock of knowledge. They now talked freely with those around them; but found the questions showered upon them from all sides somewhat more than they could answer, so that Templemore said at last in an aside to the other, "Tell you what it is, Leonard; we shall have to give a public lecture--or perhaps a series--and invite as many at a time as the Town Hall of the place will contain. Pity we didn't bring some magic lanterns and dissolving views to illustrate what we have to tell them. I _would_ have done so if I had only known." They, in their turn, were not less full of curiosity and interest in all they saw around them. The statuary, and, above all, the pictures amazed them. "It upsets all one's notions of history and all that," said Jack quietly to Leonard, "to find this sort of thing in the so-called 'new' world. We might be back in Ancient Greece." "Or Babylon, or Nineveh," Elwood answered. "It's like a dream--and, strange to say, I have dreamed much of it before. I keep thinking I shall wake up presently and find that this city, with all that it contains, has vanished." "I trust not," said Ulama--to whom the last part of the sentence had been addressed--with a smile. "I should not like to think that I, myself, am but a dream. But, since you speak of having dreams of that which you find here, know that I have strange dreams also. All my life it has been thus with me. Of late they have been less frequent than of yore, and the memory of them is confused and indistinct; but I know that in them I have seen--aye, more than once--_your_ face, and the face of him you call Monella." Elwood regarded the maiden in surprise, and she continued, "Yes, it is true. Tell me, Zonella, have I not often described to thee those I had seen in my dreams; and did not some resemble these? As to face thou canst not know, but as to garb and other details?" "'Tis true," replied Zonella gravely. But the matter-of-fact Templemore found it hard to credit this; visions and the like were nothing in his way. "Are you serious?" he asked. "Quite," both said. "And--me--a--I--myself, I mean; was I there too?" Templemore's manner when he asked this question was so humorously anxious that Ulama laughed--a joyous, ringing laugh, the token of a soul innocent and free from care. "No, indeed," she answered. "I never dreamed of you." "And you?" he asked, turning to Zonella. "No, never;" and she too laughed merrily.