I began to wonder had he made a _mésalliance_, and yet he seemed scarcely the kind to have done so. Moreover, as I knew well, with spirits there is perfect equality—at least with the class of which he came. “We have not been married very long,” he continued. “A few thousand years only. Before that I was—to use a familiar expression—a bachelor.” He waited for a little while and then went on again. “There was no particular reason why I should marry. I needed no children, for we are our own children, and what work I had I found was of such a nature that I could do it better by entering into partnership with Plucritus than by anything else. He married Vestné, and we make a strong triple alliance. But once in an idle moment I worked out a theory of marriage. I wished to try a wife built on a different principle from myself, so I looked toward heaven. You have never been there, but it is similar to this place. So similar that it is hard to tell the difference—it is only felt.” He smiled. Probably he recognised the “only” was superfluous. “Once, therefore, as I was passing through the earth I happened to behold a city. And above it I saw a spirit hovering, a lovely, gentle creature, scarcely formed, except in tender graces and purity of mind. As she sailed from point to point I followed her, and noticed the rosy light that glowed about her—her only protection in that harsh wilderness. I knew at once the place from which she came. I had heard it made their boast that they would raise up spirits from the dust of earth like to themselves, and I had laughed the thought to scorn, for reasons I shall not tell you now. “And now I saw before me one of these spirit blossoms, flown wild from heaven, thoughtless of harm or evil, thinking only of sad humanity grovelling on the ground. I knew that she herself had come from such, and yet never a more lightsome flower of beauty breathed in air. I drew nearer, laughing, yet serious. Thought I, ‘I will catch this little lost jail-bird of mine and carry her down to the place meant for her, and then they may pipe for the ransom.’ For no thought of pity or compassion for her helplessness ever came near me. So I caught her.” He laughed with a mirth which was almost infectious, even to me. “And in catching her I was caught myself, for I had never realised they could do things so extremely well up there.” “What was the result?”