He looked down at them for the simple reason that he was about twelve feet tall; he was also semi-transparent. One could see right through him without much difficulty.
“This is a fine trick to play on your guests!” protested George. He grabbed at the drinks, which he could just reach. His hand, of course, went right through them. “I hope you’ve got something more substantial for us when we reach the house!”
“Don’t worry!” laughed Rupert. “Just give your order now, and it’ll be ready by the time you arrive.”
“Two large beers, cooled in liquid air,” said George promptly. “We’ll be right there.”
Rupert nodded, put down one of his glasses on an invisible table, adjusted an equally invisible control, and promptly vanished from sight.
“Well!” said Jean. “That’s the first time I’ve seen one of those gadgets in action. How did Rupert get hold of it? I thought only the Overlords had them.”
“Have you ever known Rupert not to get anything he wanted?” replied George.
“That’s just the toy for him. He can sit comfortably in his studio and go wandering round half of Africa. No heat, no bugs, no exertion — and the icebox always in reach. I wonder what Stanley and Livingstone would have thought?” The sun put an end to further conversation until they had reached the house. As they approached the front door (which was not very easy to distinguish from the rest of the glass wall facing them) it swung automatically open with a fanfare of trumpets. Jean guessed, correctly, that she would be heartily sick of that fanfare before the day was through.
The current Mrs. Boyce greeted them in the delicious coolness of the hall. She was, if truth be known, the main reason for the good turn-out of guests. Perhaps half of them would have come in any case to see Rupert’s new house; the waverers had been decided by the reports of Rupert’s new wife.
There was only one adjective that adequately described her. She was distracting. Even in a world where beauty was almost commonplace, men would turn their heads when she entered the room. She was, George guessed, about one quarter Negro; her features were practically Grecian and her hair was long and lustrous. Only the dark, rich texture of her skin — the overworked word “chocolate” was the only one that described it — revealed her mixed ancestry.