“Any other women?”
“One or two, I think.”
“And how are we to conduct ourselves during the visitation?”
“As we always do; you will not find that they will put any constraint upon you.”
“No, hardly,” said Elodia, with a slight curl of the lip.
I was eager to hear more about these singular people,—the more eager, perhaps, because the thought of them seemed to arouse Elodia to an unwonted degree of feeling and interest. Her eyes glowed intensely, and the color flamed brightly in her cheeks.
I pressed a question or two upon Severnius, and he responded:
“According to the traditions and annals of the Caskians, they began many thousands of years ago to train themselves toward the highest culture and most perfect development of which mankind is capable. Their aim was nothing short of the Ideal, and they believed that the ideal was possible. It took many centuries to counteract and finally to eradicate hereditary evils, but their courage and perseverance did not give way, and they triumphed. They have dropped the baser natural propensities—”
“As, in the course of evolution, it is said, certain species of animals dropped their tails to become Man,” interrupted Elodia.