Chapter XXVII.
One day, as I sat alone and brooding in my chamber, Taee flew
in at the open window and alighted on the couch beside me. I
was always pleased with the visits of a child, in whose
society, if humbled, I was less eclipsed than in that of Ana
who had completed their education and matured their
understanding. And as I was permitted to wander forth with him
for my companion, and as I longed to revisit the spot in which
I had descended into the nether world, I hastened to ask him if
he were at leisure for a stroll beyond the streets of the city.
His countenance seemed to me graver than usual as he replied,
"I came hither on purpose to invite you forth."
We soon found ourselves in the street, and had not got far from
the house when we encountered five or six young Gy-ei, who were
returning from the fields with baskets full of flowers, and
chanting a song in chorus as they walked. A young Gy sings
more often than she talks. They stopped on seeing us,
accosting Taee with familiar kindness, and me with the
courteous gallantry which distinguishes the Gy-ei in their
manner towards our weaker sex.
And here I may observe that, though a virgin Gy is so frank in
her courtship to the individual she favours, there is nothing
that approaches to that general breadth and loudness of manner
which those young ladies of the Anglo-Saxon race, to whom the
149distinguished epithet of 'fast' is accorded, exhibit towards
young gentlemen whom they do not profess to love. No; the
bearing of the Gy-ei towards males in ordinary is very much
that of high-bred men in the gallant societies of the upper
world towards ladies whom they respect but do not woo;
deferential, complimentary, exquisitely polished- what we
should call 'chivalrous.'
Certainly I was a little put out by the number of civil things
addressed to my 'amour propre,' which were said to me by those
courteous young Gy-ei. In the world I came from, a man would
have thought himself aggrieved, treated with irony, 'chaffed'
(if so vulgar a slang word may be allowed on the authority of
the popular novelists who use it so freely), when one fair Gy
complimented me on the freshness of my complexion, another on
the choice of colours in my dress, a third, with a sly smile,
on the conquests I had made at Aph-Lin's entertainment. But I
knew already that all such language was what the French call
'banal,' and did but express in the female mouth, below earth,
that sort of desire to pass for amiable with the opposite sex
which, above earth, arbitrary custom and hereditary
transmission demonstrate by the mouth of the male. And just as
a high-bred young lady, above earth, habituated to such
compliments, feels that she cannot, without impropriety, return
them, nor evince any great satisfaction at receiving them; so I
who had learned polite manners at the house of so wealthy and
dignified a Minister of that nation, could but smile and try to
look pretty in bashfully disclaiming the compliments showered
upon me. 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?"
150
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. I
shivered, and, inclining low, pressed the arm of my
child-friend, and drew him onward silently. The Tur placed
himself before our path, regarded me for a moment without
speaking, then turned his eye quietly on his daughter's face,
and, with a grave salutation to her and the other Gy-ei, went
through the midst of the group,- still without a word.
