The Hollow Lands

"This is certainly no future we might expect from 1896, Mr. Carnelian."

"No." A thought came to him. "I was discussing the possibility of the cyclic nature of Time with Bra

"Such theories ca

"I agree. But it would explain why we are in them, Mrs. Underwood."

She plucked a frond from over her head and began to fan herself, deliberately ignoring him.

He drew a deep breath of the rich Silurian (or possibly Ordivician) air. He stretched himself out luxuriously upon the ground. "You yourself described this world as Paradise, Mrs. Underwood. In what better place could two lovers find themselves?"

"Another abstract idea, Mr. Carnelian? You surely do not refer to yourself and myself?"

"Oh, but I do!" he said dreamily. "We could begin the human race all over again! A whole new cycle. This time we shall flourish before the dinosaurs. This is Paradise and we are Adolf and Eva! Or do I mean Alan and Edna?"

"I think you refer to Adam and Eve, Mr. Carnelian. If you do, then you blaspheme and I wish to hear no more!"

"Blas-what?"

"Pheme."

"Is that also to do with Morality?"

"I suppose it is, yes."

"Could you explain, perhaps, a little further," he asked enticingly.

"You offend against the Deity. It is a profanity to identify yourself with Adam in that way."

"What about Eve?"

"Eve, too."

"I am sorry."

"You weren't to know." She continued to fan herself with the frond. "I suppose we had best start looking for food. Aren't you hungry?"

"I am hungry for your kisses," he said romantically, and he stood up.

"Mr. Carnelian!"

"Well," he said, "we can 'marry' now, can't we? Mr. Underwood said as much."

"We are not divorced. Besides, even if I were divorced from Mr. Underwood, there is no reason to assume that I should wish to give myself in marriage to you. Moreover, Mr. Carnelian, there is nobody in the Silurian Age to marry us." She seemed to think she had produced the final argument, but he had not really understood her.

"If we were to complete my moral education," he said, "would you marry me then?"

"Perhaps — if everything else was properly settled — which seems unlikely now."

He walked slowly back to the beach again and stared out over the sluggish sea, deep in thought. At his feet a small mollusc began to crawl through the sand. He watched it for a while and then, hearing a movement behind him, turned. She was standing there. She had made herself a hat of sorts from fern-leaves. She looked extremely pretty.

"I am sorry if I upset you, Mr. Carnelian," she said kindly. "You are rather more direct than I have been used to, you see. I know that your ma

He shrugged. "That is why I am so desperate for my moral education to begin. I love you, Mrs. Amelia Underwood. Perhaps it was Lord Jagged who encouraged me to affect the emotion in the first place, but since then it has taken hold of me. I am its slave. I can console myself, of course, but I ca

"I am flattered."

"And you have said that you loved me, but now you try to deny it."

"I am still Mrs . Underwood," she pointed out gently.

The small mollusc began, tentatively, to crawl onto his foot. "And I am still Jherek Carnelian," he replied.

She noticed the mollusc. "Aha! Perhaps this one is edible."

As she reached down to inspect it, he stopped her with his hand on her shoulder. "No," he said. "Let it go."

She straightened up, smiling gently at him. "We ca

His hand remained for an instant on her shoulder. The worn, stiffened velvet was begi

Her grey eyes were serious; then she laughed. "Oh, very well. Let us wait, then, until we are extremely hungry." Gaily, with her black buttoned boots kicking at the fine sand of that primordial shore, she began to stride along beside the thick and salty sea.

she sang,

There was a certain defiance in her ma

"Self-denial, after all," she called back over her shoulder, "is good for the soul!'

"Ah!" He began to run after her and then slowed before he had caught up. He stared around him at the calm, Silurian world, struck suddenly by the freshness of it all, by the growing understanding that they really were the only two mammals on this whole planet. He looked up at the huge, golden sun and he blinked in its benign glare. He was full of wonder.

A little later, panting, sweating, laughing, he fell in beside her. He noticed that her expression was almost tender as she turned to look at him.

He offered her his arm.

After a second's hesitation, she took it.

They strolled together through the hot, Silurian afternoon.

"Now, Mrs. Underwood," he said contentedly, "what is 'self-denial'?"