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RANSOM must have fallen asleep alof a bird broke in upon his drea-legged bird like a very sht - or what passes for such in Perelandra - was all about hiood adventure as ht him, a moment later, to his feet He stretched his are-coloured island, but on the same island which had been his ho in a dead cal his way to the shore And there he stopped in astonish beside his, divided only by five feet or so of water The whole look of the world had changed There was no expanse of sea now visible - only a flat wooded landscape as far as the eye could reach in every direction Soether andbefore him, as if on the other side of a brook, was the Lady herself - walking with her head a little bowed and her hands occupied in plaiting together so to herself in a low voice but stopped and turned as he hailed her and looked hian, but he did not hear the rest of her speech The , now that it had actually co You must not misunderstand the story at this point What overwhelmed him was not in the least the fact that she, like himself, was totally naked Embarrassment and desire were both a thousand miles away from his experience: and if he was a little asha to do with difference of sex and turned only on the fact that he knew his body to be a little ugly and a little ridiculous Still less was her colour a source of horror to hi; it was his pasty white and angry sunburn which were the monstrosity It was neither of these; but he found himself unnerved He had to ask her presently to repeat what she had been saying
"I was young yesterday," she said "When I laughed at you Now I know that the people in your world do not like to be laughed at"
"You say you were young?"
"Yes"
"Are you not young today also?"
She appeared to be thinking for a few arded, from her hand
"I see it now," she said presently "It is very strange to say one is young at theBut to today You are quite right This is great wisdo, O Piebald Man"
"What do youthe line and seeing how a day has one appearance as it comes to you, and another when you are in it, and a third when it has gone past Like the waves"
"But you are very little older than yesterday"
"How do you know that?"
"Itihtening "I see it now," she said "You think tiht whatever you do in it, as from this tree to that is always so many paces whether you take them quickly or slowly I suppose that is true in a way But the waves do not always come at equal distances I see that you come from a orldif this is wise I have never done it before - stepping out of life into the Alongside and looking at oneself living as if one were not alive Do they all do that in your world, Piebald?"
"What do you know about other worlds?" said Ransom
"I know this Beyond the roof it is all deep heaven, the high place And the low is not really spread out as it seems to be" (here she indicated the whole landscape) "but is rolled up into little balls: little lureatest of them have on them that which we have never seen nor heard and cannot at all understand But on the younger Maleldil has s like us, that breathe and breed"
"How have you found all this out? Your roof is so dense that your people cannot see through into Deep Heaven and look at the other worlds"
Up till now her face had been grave At this point she clapped her hands and a sed her One does not see that s of the child about it there
"Oh, I see it," she said "I aht out into the high place and see the great dance with your own eyes You live always in that terror and that delight, and e must only believe you can behold Is not this a wonderful invention of Maleldil&039;s? When I was young I could iine no beauty but this of our oorld But He can think of all, and all different"
"That is one of the things that is bewildering me," said Ransom "That you are not different You are shaped like the women of my own kind I had not expected that I have been in one other world beside my own But the creatures there are not at all like you andabout it?"
"I do not see why different worlds should bring forth like creatures Do different trees bring forth like fruit?"
"But that other world was older than yours," she said "How do you know that?" asked Ranso me," answered the woman And as she spoke the landscape had becoh with a difference none of the senses would identify The light was dientle, and all Ransoarden world where he stood seemed to be packed quite full, and as if an unendurable pressure had been laid Upon his shoulders, his legs failed hi position
"It all co furry creatures, and the white giants - what is it you called the pleasure it would be to see theer because there are no more of that kind to coer yet"
"Why?" said Ranso up at her
"You must know that better than I," she said "For was it not in your oorld that all this happened?"
"All what?"
"I thought it would be you ould tell me of it," said the wo about?" said Ransom
"I mean," said she, "that in your world Maleldil first took Himself this form, the form of your race and mine"
"You know that?" said Ransom sharply Those who have had a dream which is very beautiful but from which, nevertheless, they have ardently desired to awake, will understand his sensations
"Yes, I know that Maleldil has " The expression on her face was such as he had never seen, and could not steadily look at The whole of this adventure see silence He stooped down to the water and drank before he spoke again
"Oh, er only in the ancient worlds?"
"Are you so young?" she answered "How could they coain? Since our Beloved became a man, how should Reason in any world take on another for ti this side of it is new Tio backward"
"And can one little world like mine be the corner?"
"I do not understand Corner with us is not the name of a "And do you," said Ransom with some hesitation - "and do you knohy He cah this part of the conversation he found it difficult to look higher than her feet, so that her ansas merely a voice in the air above him "Yes," said the voice "I know the reason But it is not the reason you know There was more loan one reason, and there is one I know and cannot tell to you, and another that you know and cannot tell to me"
"And after this," said Ransom, "it will all be men"
"You say it as if you were sorry"
"I think," said Ranso than a beast I do not well knohat I a But I loved the furry people whom I met in Malacandra, that old world Are they to be swept away? Are they only rubbish in the Deep Heaven?"
"I do not knohat rubbish "
"That is what I have come to speak to you about," he said "Maleldil has sent me to your world for some purpose Do you knohat it is?"
She stood for aand then answered "No"
"Then you must take me to your home and show me to your people"
"People? I do not knohat you are saying"
"Your kindred - the others of your kind"
"Do you , I had better be brought before "I cannot do that," she answered "I do not knohere to find him"
"To your own hoether and have their possessions and bring up their children"
She spread out her hands to indicate all that was in sight "This is my home," she said
"Do you live here alone?" asked Ransom "What is alone?"