After a little a servant announced some visitors, and Severnius went out into the hall to receive them. He left the door open, and I saw that the visitors were the astronomers I had met the night before. They asked to see me, and Severnius ushered them into the library. I stood up and shook hands with each one, as he advanced, and repeated their own formula for "How do you do!" which quite amused them. I suppose the words sounded very parrot-like,--I did not know where to put the accent. They congratulated me with many smiles and gesticulations on my determination to learn the language,--Severnius having explained this fact to them. He also told them that I had perhaps better be left to myself and him until I had mastered it, when of course I should be much more interesting to them and they to me. They acquiesced, and with many bows and waves of the hand, withdrew. The language, I found, was not at all difficult,--not so arbitrary as many of our modern languages. It was similar in form and construction to the ancient languages of southern Europe. The proper names had an almost familiar sound. That of the country I was in was Paleveria. The city was called Thursia, and there was a river flowing through it,--one portion of Severnius' grounds, at the back of the house, sloped to it,--named the Gyro. Chapter 2. A WOMAN. "Her face so fair, as flesh it seemed not, But heavenly portrait of bright angels hew, Clear as the skye withouten blame or blot, Through goodly mixture of complexion's dew; And in her cheeks the vermeil red did shew Like roses in a bed of lillies shed. * * * * * In her faire eyes two living lamps did flame." --SPENSER. Thus far, I had seen no women. I was curious on this point, and I was not kept long in suspense. Late in the afternoon of the day following my arrival, Severnius and I went out to walk about the grounds, and were returning through an avenue of eucalyptus trees,--of a variety more wide-spreading in their branches than any I have seen in our country,--when a person alighted from a carriage in the _porte cochere_ and, instead of entering the house, came to meet us. It was a woman. Though it was not left to her dress, nor her stature,--she was nearly as tall as myself,--to proclaim that fact; her grace and carriage would have determined her sex, if her beautiful face had not. She advanced swiftly, with long, free steps. Her white dress, similar in cut and style to ours, was relieved only by a girdle studded with gems. She carried a little white parasol with a gold fringe, and wore no head-gear to crush down her beautifully massed hair.