A Honeymoon in Space
had submitted to the stroking process for a few moments. "These people
talk in music, and, as far as I can see or hear, their opinion of us,
or, at least, of you, is distinctly flattering. I don't know what they
take _me_ for, and I don't care, but as we'd better make friends with
them suppose you sing them 'Home, Sweet Home,' or the 'Swanee River.' I
shouldn't wonder if they consider our talking voices most horrible
discords, so you might as well give them something different."
While he was speaking the sounds about them suddenly hushed, and, as
Redgrave said afterwards, it was something like the silence that follows
a cannon shot. Then, in the midst of the hush, Zaidie put her hands
behind her, looked up towards the luminous silver surface which formed
the only visible sky of Venus, and began to sing "The Swanee River."
The clear, sweet notes rang up through the midst of a sudden silence.
The sons and daughters of the Love-Star instantly ceased their own soft
musical conversation, and Zaidie sang the old plantation song through
for the first time that a human voice had sung it to ears other than
human.
As the last note thrilled sweetly from her lips she looked round at the
crowd of queer half-human shapes about her, and something in their
unlikeness to her own kind brought back to her mind the familiar scenes
which lay so far away, so many millions of miles across the dark and
silent Ocean of Space.
Other winged figures, attracted by the sound of her singing, had crossed
the trees, and these, during the silence which came after the singing of
the song, were swiftly followed by others, until there were nearly a
thousand of them gathered about the side of the _Astronef_.
There was no crowding or jostling among them. Each one treated every
other with the most perfect gentleness and courtesy. No such thing as
enmity or ill-feeling seemed to exist among them, and, in perfect
silence, they waited for Zaidie to continue what they thought was her
long speech of greeting. The temper of the throng somehow coincided
exactly with the mood which her own memories had brought to her, and the
next moment she sent the first line of "Home, Sweet Home" soaring up to
the cloud-veiled sky.
As the notes rang up into the still, soft air a deeper hush fell on the
listening throng. Heads were bowed with a gesture almost of adoration,
and many of those standing nearest to her bent their bodies forward, and
expanded their wings, bringing them together over their breasts with a
motion which, as they afterwards learnt, was intended to convey the idea
of wonder and admiration, mingled with something like a sentiment of
worship.
Zaidie sang the sweet old song through from end to end, forgetting for
the time being everything but the home she had left behind her on the
banks of the Hudson. As the last notes left her lips, she turned round
to Redgrave and looked at him with eyes dim with the first tears that
had filled them since her father's death, and said, as he caught hold of
her outstretched hand:
"I believe they've understood every word of it."
"Or, at any rate, every note. You may be quite certain of that," he
replied. "If you had done that on Mars it might have been even more
effective than the Maxims."
"For goodness sake don't talk about things like that in a heaven like
this! Oh, listen! They've got the tune already!"
It was true! The dwellers of the Love-Star, whose speech was song, had
instantly recognised the sweetness of the sweetest of all earthly songs.
They had, of course, no idea of the meaning of the words; but the music
spoke to them and told them that this fair visitant from another world
could speak the same speech as theirs. Every note and cadence was
repeated with absolute fidelity, and so the speech, common to the two
far-distant worlds, became a link connecting this wandering son and
daughter of the Earth with the sons and daughters of the Love-Star.
The throng fell back a little and two figures, apparently male and
female, came to Zaidie and held out their right hands and began
addressing her in perfectly harmonised song, which, though utterly
unintelligible to her in the sense of speech, expressed sentiments which
could not possibly be mistaken, as there was a faint suggestion of the
old English song running through the little song-speech that they made,
and both Zaidie and her husband rightly concluded that it was intended
to convey a welcome to the strangers from beyond the cloud-veil.
And then the strangest of all possible conversations began. Redgrave,
who had no more notion of music than a walrus, perforce kept silence. In
fact, he noticed with a certain displeasure which vanished speedily with
a musical, and half-malicious little laugh from Zaidie, that when he
spoke the Bird-Folk drew back a little and looked in something like
astonishment at him; but Zaidie was already in touch with them, and half
by song and half by signs she very soon gave them an idea of what they
were and where they had come from. Her husband afterwards told her that
it was the best piece of operatic acting he had ever seen, and,
considering all the circumstances, this was very possibly true.
In the end the two who had come to give her what seemed to be the formal
greeting, were invited into the _Astronef_. They went on board without
the slightest sign of mistrust and with only an expression of mild
wonder on their beautiful and strangely childlike faces.
Then, while the other doors were being closed, Zaidie stood at the open
one above the gangway and made signs showing that they were going up
beyond the clouds and then down into the valley, and as she made the
signs she sang through the scale, her voice rising and falling in
harmony with her gestures. The Bird-Folk understood her instantly, and
as the door closed and the _Astronef_ rose from the ground, a thousand
wings were outspread and presently hundreds of beautiful soaring forms
were circling about the Navigator of the Stars.
"Don't they look lovely!" said Zaidie. "I wonder what they would think
if they could see us flying above New York or London or Paris with an
escort like this. I suppose they're going to show us the way. Perhaps
they have a city down there. Suppose you were to go and get a bottle of
champagne and see if Master Cupid and Miss Venus would like a drink.
We'll see then if our nectar is anything like theirs."
Redgrave went below. Meanwhile, for lack of other possible conversation,
Zaidie began to sing the last verse of "Never Again." The melody almost
exactly described the upward motion of the _Astronef_, and she could see
that it was instantly understood, for when she had finished their two
voices joined in an almost exact imitation of it.
When Redgrave brought up the wine and the glasses they looked at them
without any sign of surprise. The pop of the cork did not even make them
look round.
"Evidently a semi-angelic people, living on nectar and ambrosia, with
nectar very like our own," he said, as he filled the glasses. "Perhaps
you'd better give it to them. They seem to understand you better than
they do me--you being, of course, a good bit nearer to the angels than I
am."
"Thanks!" she said, as she took a couple of glasses up, wondering a
little what their visitors would do with them. Somewhat to her surprise,
they took them with a little bow and a smile and sipped at the wine,
first with a swift glint of wonder in their eyes, and then with smiles
which are unmistakable evidence of perfect appreciation.
"I thought so," said Redgrave, as he raised his own glass, and bowed
gravely towards them. "This is our nearest approach to nectar, and they
seem to recognise it."
"And don't they just look like the sort of people who live on it, and,
of course, other things?" added Zaidie, as she too lifted her glass, and
looked with laughing eyes across the brim at her two guests.
But meanwhile Murgatroyd had been applying the repulsive force a little
too strongly. The _Astronef_ shot up with a rapidity which soon left her
winged escort far below. She entered the cloud-veil and passed beyond
it. The instant that the unclouded sun-rays struck the glass-roofing of
the deck-chamber their two guests, who had been moving about examining
everything with a childlike curiosity, closed their eyes and clasped
their hands over them, uttering little cries, tuneful and musical, but
still with a note of strange discord in them.
"Lenox, we must go down again," exclaimed Zaidie. "Don't you see they
can't stand the light; it hurts them. Perhaps, poor dears, it's the
first time they've ever been hurt in their lives. I don't believe they
have any of our ideas of pain or sorrow or anything of that sort. Take
us back under the clouds--quick, or we may blind them."
Before she had ceased speaking, Redgrave had sent a signal down to
Murgatroyd, and the _Astronef_ began to drop back again towards the
surface of the cloud-sea. Zaidie had, meanwhile, gone to her lady guest
and dropped the black lace mantilla over her head, and, as she did so,
she caught herself saying:
"There, dear, we shall soon be back in your own light. I hope it hasn't
hurt you. It was very stupid of us to do a thing like that."
The answer came in a little cooing murmur, which said, "Thank you!"
quite as effectively as any earthly words could have done, and then the
_Astronef_ passed through the cloud-sea. The soaring forms of her lost
escort came into view again and clustered about her; and, surrounded by
them, she dropped, in obedience to their signs, down between the
tremendous mountains and towards the island, thick with golden foliage,
which lay two or three Earth-miles out in a bay, where four converging
rivers spread out through a vast estuary into the sea.
As Lady Redgrave said afterwards to Mrs. Van Stuyler, she could have
filled a whole volume with a description of the exquisitely arcadian
delights with which the hours of the next ten days and nights were
filled. Possibly if she had been able to do justice to them, even her
account might have been received with qualified credence; but still some
idea of them may be gathered from this extract of a conversation which
took place in the saloon of the _Astronef_ on the eleventh evening.
"But look here, Zaidie," said Redgrave, "as we've found a world which is
certainly much more delightful than our own, why shouldn't we stop here
a bit? The air suits us and the people are simply enchanting. I think
they like us, and I'm sure you're in love with every one of them, male
and female. Of course, it's rather a pity that we can't fly unless we do
it in the _Astronef_. But that's only a detail. You're enjoying yourself
thoroughly, and I never saw you looking better or, if possible, more
beautiful; and why on Earth--or Venus--do you want to go?"
She looked at him steadily for a few moments, and with an expression
which he had never seen on her face or in her eyes before, and then she
said slowly and very sweetly, although there was something like a note
of solemnity running through her tone:
"I altogether agree with you, dear; but there is something which you
don't seem to have noticed. As you say, we have had a perfectly
delightful time. It's a delicious world, and just everything that one
would think it to be; but if we were to stop here we should be
committing one of the greatest of crimes, perhaps the greatest, that
ever was committed within the limits of the Solar System."
"My dear Zaidie, what, in the name of what we used to call morals on the
Earth, _do_ you mean?"
"Just this," she replied, leaning a little towards him in her
deck-chair. "These people, half angels, and half men and women, welcomed
us after we dropped through their cloud-veil, as friends; we were a