She asked with sorrowful archness, "Are we so terrible in your eyes, Mattern?"
"I don't know," he said slowly, bewilderedly. "Sometimes you are, and I know you will be again. But right now, to me you look—almost beautiful."
There was silence, and, for a moment, he thought that he had offended her.
Then, "Thank you," she said softly. "It is a great compliment."
He was anxious to know why they had chosen him as their human representative. "Weren't there any men who did try to get through?" he asked.
"A few—a very few—reached this space." She added reluctantly, "Some of them proved to lack stability of substance—"
He was angry, at her, and at himself, for not realizing that he had not been chosen. It had merely been a question of survival. "Then you knew what could happen to Schiemann!"
"It could have happened to anyone, Mattern. You knew there were risks to be taken. We did not conceal that from you."
And that was true. It had not occurred to him that the risks would not be equally shared by all three members of the ship's company.
The mbretersha continued: "And others of those who come through go mad. We feared that might happen to you, Mattern."