column turned out to be really a cluster of columns - that is, of crags much higher than they were broad, rather like exaggerated dolomites, but smoother: so much smoother in fact that it might be truer to describe them as pillars from the Giant's Causeway magnified to the height of mountains. This huge upright mass did not, however, rise directly from the sea. The island had a base of rough country, but with smoother land at the coast, and a hint of valleys with vegetation in them between the ridges, and even of steeper and narrower valleys which ran some way up between the central crags. It was certainly land, real fixed land with its roots in the solid surface of the planet. He could dimly make out the texture of true rock from where he sat. Some of it was inhabitable land. He felt a great desire to explore it. It looked as if a landing would present no difficulties, and even the great mountain itself might turn out to be climbable.
He did not see the Lady again that day. Early next morning, after he had amused himself by swimming for a little and eaten his first meal, he was again seated on the shore looking out towards the Fixed Land. Suddenly he heard her voice behind him and looked round. She had come forth from the woods with some beasts, as usual, following her. Her words had been words of greeting, but she showed no disposition to talk. She came and stood on the edge of the floating island beside him and looked with him towards the Fixed Land.
"I will go there," she said at last. "May I go with you?" asked Ransom.
"If you will," said the Lady. "But you see it is the Fixed Land."
"That is why I wish to tread on it," said Ransom. "In my world all the lands are fixed, and it would give me pleasure to walk in such a land again."
She gave a sudden exclamation of surprise and stared at him. "Where, then, do you live in your world?" she asked. "On the lands."
"But you said they are all fixed."
"Yes. We live on the fixed lands."
For the first time since they had met, something not quite unlike an expression of horror or disgust passed over her face. "But what do you do during the nights?"
"During the nights?" said Ransom in bewilderment. "Why, we sleep, of course."
"But where?"
"Where we live. On the land."
She remained in deep thought so long that Ransom feared She was never going to speak again. When she did, her voice was hushed and once more tranquil, though the note of joy had not yet returned to it.
"He has never bidden you not to," she said, less as a question than as a statement. '
"No," said Ransom.
"There can, then, ,be different laws in different worlds."
"Is there a law in your world not to sleep in a Fixed Land?"
"Yes," said the Lady. "He does not wish us to dwell there.
We may land on them and walk on them, for the world is ours. But to stay there - to sleep and awake there .. : ' she ended with a shudder.
"You couldn't have that law in our world," said Ransom. "There are no floating lauds with us."
"How many of you are there?" asked. the Lady suddenly. Ransom found that he didn't know the population of the Earth, but contrived to give her some idea of many millions. He had expected her to be astonished, but it appeared that numbers did not interest her. "How do you all find room on your Fixed Land?" she asked.
"There is not one fixed land, but many," he answered. "Anal they are big: almost as big as the sea."
"How do you endure it?" she burst out. "Almost half your world empty and dead. Loads and loads of land, all tied down. Does not the very thought of it crush you?"
"Not at all," said Ransom. "The very thought of a world which was all sea like yours would make my people unhappy and afraid."
"Where will this end?" said the Lady, speaking more to herself than to him. "I have grown so old in these last few hours that all my life before seems only like the stem of a tree, and now I am like the branches shooting out in every direction. They are getting so wide apart that I can hardly bear it. First to have learned that