“No,” replied Ergimo; for Zulve could not speak.  “The household of Clavelta are safe and honoured henceforth as no other in the land.  Something we must ask of him who is, at any rate for the present, the head of this household, and the representative of the Founder’s lineage.  It may be,” he whispered, “that another” (and his eyes fell on the veiled forms whose pink robes covered with dark crimson gauze indicated the younger matrons of the family) “may yet give to the Children of the Star that natural heir to the Signet we had hoped from your own household.  But the Order cannot remain headless.”

Here Zulve, approaching, gave into my hand the Signet unclasped from her husband’s arm ere the coffer was closed upon his form.  I understood her meaning; and, as for the time the sole male representative of the house, I clasped it on the arm of the Chief who succeeded to Esmo’s rank, and to whom I felt the care of Esmo’s house might be safely left.  The due honour paid to his new office, I turned to depart.  Then for the first time my eyes fell on the unveiled countenance and drooping form of one unlike, yet so like Eveena—­her favourite and nearest sister, Zevle.  I held out my hand; but, emotion overcoming the habits of reserve, she threw herself into my arms, and her tears fell on my bosom, hardly faster than my own as I stooped and kissed her brow.  I had no voice to speak my farewell.  But as the Astronaut rose for the last time from the ground, the voices of my brethren chanted in adieu the last few lines of the familiar formula—­

  “Peace be yours no force can break,
   Peace not Death hath power to shake;”

* * * * *

  “Peace from peril, fear, and pain;
   Peace—­until we meet again! 
   Not before the sculptured stone,
   But the All-Commander’s Throne.”

[Footnote 1:  Qy. [GREEK:  apo], from, [GREEK:  ergos], work—­as en-ergy?]

[Footnote 2:  The chemical notation of the MS. is unfortunately different from any known to any chemist of my acquaintance, and utterly undecipherable.]

[Footnote 3:  Last figures illegible:  the year is probably 183.]

[Footnote 4:  These distances are given in Roman measures and round numbers not easy of exact rendering.]

[Footnote 5:  In 1830 or thereabouts.—­ED.]

[Footnote 6:  The Martial year is 687 of our days, and eight Martial years are nearly equivalent to fifteen Terrestrial.  Roughly, and in round numbers, the time figures given may be multiplied by two to reduce them to Terrestrial periods.—­ED.]

[Footnote 7:  Say fifty-sixth; in effect, fiftieth.—­Narrator.]

[Footnote 8:  Equivalent in time to ninety-three and forty-seven with us; in effect corresponding to eighty and forty.]

[Footnote 9:  About ninety; in time, one hundred and six.]

[Footnote 10:  Seventy; in time, eighty-three.—­Narrator.]