"Why, yes, of course we do. What did we get you for?"
And that was it, of course.
What had they got him for?
"You want me to begin right now?"
"Not now," she said. "There are the others you must meet. My name is Elaine. That's not exactly it, of course. It is something else, but Elaine is as close as you'll ever come to saying it."
"I could try the other name. I'm proficient at languages."
"Elaine is good enough," she said carelessly. "Come along."
He fell in behind her on the path and followed up the incline.
And as he walked along, he saw that it was indeed a house - that the trees were pillars holding up an artificial sky that somehow failed to look very artificial and that the aisles between the trees ended in great windows which looked out on the barren plain.
But the grass and flowers, the moss and ferns, were real, and he had a feeling that the trees must be real, as well.