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Alumion then took a shallow dish or patera, and, filling it from a vase which she carried with her set it upon the floor for the snake to feed. "You don't seem to be afraid of that gruesome reptile," said I pleasantly. "Oh, no," she replied smiling. "Siloo knows me very well." "Tell me, was it he who made the music a little while ago?"
We have no oxygen to waste, and can't go hunting you in your love affairs all round the solar system." "Very well, then, I shall stay behind." "But, my dear fellow " "Say no more about it. I have made up my mind." It was broad day when I awoke, and oppressively warm in the little cabin. My first thoughts were of Alumion, the consecration of our loves, and my resolution to abide in Venus.
Despite my excusable anger and vexation, the calm and friendly explanation of the professor was not without its effect on me. It was true that I had broken my promise to my fellow-travellers; true that Carmichael was commander of the expedition. I was myself at fault. And yet what a disappointment! What would Alumion think of me!
"Only to carry out the original plan of the voyage. Promise me that you will stick to the ship. Afterwards you can return to Venus and do as you please. Stanley, you know, made his greatest journey into Africa between his engagement and his marriage." "Very well, I promise." With an agitated mind I repaired to the tryst next evening and waited for Alumion.
The words had scarcely passed my lips when the same terrible cry which I had heard once before sounded from the interior of the grotto. Alumion called or rather sang out a response to the cry, which I did not understand, then said to me in her ordinary voice, "It is Siloo. I must go now and give him food." I was curious to know who or what was Siloo, but did not dare to ask.
The serpent at once obeyed her voice and retired again to his dish. "He thought I was going to harm you," I exclaimed, not without a sense of relief. "Or perhaps he was jealous of me." "Remember this is holy ground," responded Alumion. "Forgive me," I said, feeling her reproof. "My love your beauty must be my excuse."
Constant bliss, like everlasting honey, might cloy your earthly palate, and make you sigh for our poor, old, wicked, miserable world, that in spite of all its faults and crimes, is yet so interesting, so variable, so dramatic so dear." "Never. With Alumion even Hades would be an Elysium." "Think of your friends at home, and what you owe to them; how they will miss you."
"Siloo, Siloo!" cried Alumion softly, and the music, which I cannot compare to any earthly strain, ceased in a moment. Presently I was more than startled to see in the gloomier background of the cavern a great white serpent glide like a ghost along the floor and come straight towards us.
I did not speak of the weather or give an excuse for my presence there, as I might have done to a woman of the world. With Alumion I felt that all such artificial forms were idle, and that I could reveal my inmost soul without disguise, in all its naked sincerity. "I have brought you some flowers," said I, offering her a nosegay which I had picked. "Will you accept them?"
"I think we have proved that it is not more dangerous to go from one planet to another than it is to get about town." "If an accident should occur. If Carmichael cannot return " "I shall be much happier here than I should be on the earth. Even if I had never met Alumion I think I should come back and stay on Venus."
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