"I see," said Van Emmon, thoughtfully. "You have no rain."
"Precisely"—from Estra. "We have the air completely under our control. We give our vegetation artificial showers when we think it should have it, not when nature wills; and similarly we use electricity instead of sunlight that we may stimulate its growth."
"In short"—Van Emmon put it as the car slid slowly down the remaining distance—"in short, you have abolished the weather."
The Venusian nodded. "And I'll save you the trouble of suggesting," he added, "that we are nothing more nor less than hothouse people!"
V
THE HUMAN CONSERVATORY
"But there is this difference," he cautioned as they stepped out of the elevator into a sort of a plaza, "that, whereas you people on the earth have only begun to use the hothouse principle, we here have perfected it.
"I suggest that you waste no time looking for faults."
Van Emmon stared at the doctor. "How does this idea fit your theory, Kinney—that Venus is simply the earth plus several thousand extra generations of civilization?"