Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/326

 preciate the profound wisdom that had dictated its adoption. Separated in body, we seemed to draw yet nearer in soul. The happiness I now enjoyed in our daily communion of soul with soul, if not so intense as that in her presence, was of a higher order. That mutual interaction of mind on mind, that moulding of character by character, on which Utis had laid so much stress, became to me day by day a matter of happy personal experience. How much we had to say during that happy hour of converse! How rapidly it seemed to flee!

I shall not weary the reader with the details of my life near the great city of Salu, the seat of the great central depository, with its hundred million volumes. It was this drew me there, in order to carry out a plan of investigation already determined on before that act of impulsive folly expelled me prematurely from my paradise. I did not, of course, spend all my time amid the mouldering records of the past. It was necessary, not only from considerations of health, but also from regard to the custom of the period, for me to adopt some regular manual occupation. Not having received the training of a zerdar, I had no great choice of active occupations. I accordingly, at the suggestion of Utis, adopted one that not only required no special skill, but also had the advantage of taking me much into the open air, a consideration of some importance, considering the hours I spent in the alcoves of the great depository.

Imagine me, therefore, engaged from four in the morning til nearly eight, in the useful and necessary, but among us somewhat contenmed, occupation of setting in order the streets of Salu for the business of the ensuing