It was spring, but the retrogression soon brought winter again. A January snowfall lay white beneath the naked trees of the park. But it was autumn in a moment. Rogers was watching the dials closely. Summer again; then spring. In one of the brief periods of night he threw the switch to the first intensity. The plane began drifting to the south. The dim stars were swinging eastward in a murky sky. The city lights shone yellow. The roof of the Scientific Club came into view among the buildings south of the plane. Rogers threw off the current completely. "Look, Dee!" cried George. "Look, Azeela! There it is at last! See the board enclosure?" * * * * * An evening in March. In the large living room of the Banker's Park Avenue apartment, a group of his friends were gathered. Dinner was over; a butler was serving coffee and the men were lighting their cigars. A woman and four men--all in evening dress--were sitting in a group; mingled with their voices came the soft, limpid tones of a piano. It stood in a secluded alcove--a grand piano of carved mahogany. On a bench before its keyboard, a young man in a Tuxedo was playing. George. Dee stood beside him, leaning against the instrument. She was gazing first at the page of music with a puzzled frown, then at his fingers as they roamed the keys, and then, in admiration, at his face. On a high-back davenport before an open fireplace, Loto sat with Azeela. There was an artificial black flower in her spun-gold hair; the mourning custom of her time world. Her milk-white throat was bare, and the blue of her dress was mirrored in her eyes. She was silent, staring into the flames licking upward from the huge logs. "That's very pretty music," she said finally. "So big an instrument--this piano as you call it--you never would think one could play it." "Chopin," he answered. "A piece by Chopin. George plays Chopin mighty well. Azeela, there is so much I have to show you. Just that one little thing--Chopin, for instance. I want you to hear the music of some of the great composers and pianists." "And the opera," she prompted. "And you promised you would take me to a theater." "I will, of course. There are so many things for you to see. Why, it will be just like a new world, a new life that you're just beginning, Azeela." "Yes," she murmured. "A new life in a new world. It seems like that already." "And wait till you ride in the subways! You'll be surprised how--" But she shuddered. "I do not believe I want to do that. It would bring back memory of the cavern...other things." George and Dee left the piano and walked over to the fireplace. Azeela moved over on the davenport. Loto stood up, but George shook his head. "Thanks. Dee and I thought we'd try the window seat." Across the room the Big Business Man, the Doctor, and the Banker were demanding additional details from Rogers.