“Which of us have you come to see?” asked Philemon at length, seeing the conversation had suddenly come to a standstill.

“Both of you. You have no objection, Philemon?”

“None. Why have you come?”

“I have come for no particular reason. Time was dragging on my hands, which is a new experience for me, or perhaps my wife is growing ill and longs for the edelweiss of heaven.”

“I never saw her after all,” I said.

“No. Philemon, why do you look at me with such a disagreeable minuteness?”

“I am trying to solve what relationship Genius bears to you.”

“You had best put it under a microscope.”

“Is it so small then?”

“Undoubtedly. What relationship should he bear to me? He has come from earth, a place I never visit.”