something quite different. Just as one can distinguish a man from a
woman at the first glance by some indefinable difference of
expression and atmospheres altogether apart from the contour of the
figure, so the stranger was separated in appearance from both. As
with men and women, the whole person expressed a latent sensuality,
which gave body and face alike their peculiar character.... Maskull
decided that it was love--but what love--love for whom? it was
neither the shame-carrying passion of a male, nor the deep-rooted
instinct of a female to obey her destiny. It was as real and
irresistible as these, but quite different.

As he continued staring into those strange, archaic eyes, he had an
intuitive feeling that aer lover was no other than Shaping himself.
it came to him that the design of this love was not the continuance
of the race but the immortality on earth of the individual. No
children were produced by the act; the lover aerself was the eternal
child. Further, ae sought like a man, but received like a woman.
All these things were dimly and confusedly expressed by this
extraordinary being, who seemed to have dropped out of another age,
when creation was different.

Of all the weird personalities Maskull had so far met in Tormance,
this one struck him as infinitely the most foreign--that is, the
farthest removed from him in spiritual structure. If they were to
live together for a hundred years, they could never be companions.

Maskull pulled himself out of his trancelike meditations and, viewing
the newcomer in greater detail, tried with his understanding to
account for the marvellous things told him by his intuitions. Ae
possessed broad shoulders and big bones, and was without female