"I THINK,"; shrilled Erjas, "that this is our most intriguing discovery on any of the worlds we have yet visited!";

His wide, green-shimmering wings fluttered, his beady bird eyes flashed excitement. His several companions bobbed their heads in agreement, the greenish-gold down on their slender necks ruffling softly. They were perched on what had once been amoving sidewalk but was now only a twisted ribbon of wreckage overlooking the vast expanse of a ruined city.

“He's tall,” said Meg, seventeen.

“He’s very dark,” said Marie, almost eighteen.

“He's handsome.”

“And he's coming here tonight —this very night — to see us.”

“To see both of you?” cried father. He was always crying out. After twenty years of marriage and seventeen years of daughters it was his natural tone of voice. “To see both of you?” cried father, again.

“To see both of us,” said Meg.

“Both of us,” said Marie, and smiled at her supper steak.