She was standing close beside me, and at her smiling words raised one of her glorious red wings and spread it behind me as though for protection. Then, becoming serious once more, she answered my question. "We are fortunate, Alan. It is the Valley of the Sun, in the Light Country. I know it well. We are very close to the Great City." I breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll leave it all to you, little wife. Shall we start at once?" Her hand pressed mine. "I shall lead you now," she said. "But afterward--_you_ it will be who leads _me_--who leads us all." She crossed to the door fastenings. As she loosed them I remember I heard a slight hissing sound. Before I could reach her she slid back the door. A great wave of air rushed in upon us, sweeping us back against the wall. I clutched at something for support, but the sweep of wind stopped almost at once. I had stumbled to my knees. "Miela!" I cried in terror. She was beside me in an instant, wide-eyed with fear, which even then I could see was fear only for me. I struggled to my feet. My head was roaring. All the blood in my body seemed rushing to my face. After a moment I felt better. Miela pulled me to a seat. "I did not think, Alan. The pressure of the air is different here from your world. It was so wrong of me, for I knew. It was so when I landed there on your earth." I had never thought to ask her that, nor had she ever spoken of it to me. She went on now to tell me how, when first she had opened the door on that little Florida island, all the air about her seemed rushing away. She had felt then as one feels transported quickly to the rarified atmosphere of a great height. Here the reverse had occurred. We had brought with us, and maintained, an air density such as that near sea level on earth. But here on Mercury the air was far denser, and its pressure had rushed in upon us instantly the door was opened. Miela had been affected to a much less extent than I, and in consequence recovered far more quickly. The feeling, after the first nausea, the pressure and pain in my ears and the roaring in my head, had passed away. A sense of heaviness, an inability to breathe with accustomed freedom, remained with me for days. We sat quiet for some minutes, and then left the vehicle. Miela was dressed now as I had first seen her on the Florida bayou. As we stepped upon the ground she suddenly tore the veil from her breast, spread her wings, and, with a laugh of sheer delight, flew rapidly up into the air. I stood watching her, my heart beating fast. Up--up she went into the gray haze of the sky. Then I could see her spread her great wings, motionless, a giant bird soaring over the valley. A few moments more, and she was again beside me, alighting on the tip of one toe with perfect poise and grace almost within reach of my hand.