While we were thus talking, Taee's sister, it seems, had seen us from the upper rooms of the Royal Palace at the entrance of the town, and, precipitating herself on her wings, alighted in the midst of the group.
Singling me out, she said, though still with the inimitable deference of manner which I have called 'chivalrous,' yet not without a certain abruptness of tone which, as addressed to the weaker sex, Sir Philip Sydney might have termed 'rustic,' "Why do you never come to see us ?" While I was deliberating on the right answer to give to this unlooked-for question, Taee said quickly and sternly, "Sister, you forget--the stranger is of my sex.

It is not for persons of my sex, having due regard for reputation and modesty, to lower themselves by running after the society of yours." This speech was received with evident approval by the young Gy-ei in general; but Taee's sister looked greatly abashed.

Poor thing!--and a PRINCESS too! Just at this moment a shadow fell on the space between me and the group; and, turning round, I beheld the chief magistrate coming close upon us, with the silent and stately pace peculiar to the Vril-ya.

At the sight of his countenance, the same terror which had seized me when I first beheld it returned.

On that brow, in those eyes, there was that same indefinable something which marked the being of a race fatal to our own--that strange expression of serene exemption from our common cares and passions, of conscious superior power, compassionate and inflexible as that of a judge who pronounces doom.