Her husband afterwards told her that it was the best piece of operatic acting he had ever seen, and, considering all the circumstances, this was very possibly true.
In the end the two who had come to give her what seemed to be the formal greeting, were invited into the _Astronef_.

They went on board without the slightest sign of mistrust and with only an expression of mild wonder on their beautiful and strangely childlike faces.
Then, while the other doors were being closed, Zaidie stood at the open one above the gangway and made signs showing that they were going up beyond the clouds and then down into the valley, and as she made the signs she sang through the scale, her voice rising and falling in harmony with her gestures.

The Bird-Folk understood her instantly, and as the door closed and the _Astronef_ rose from the ground, a thousand wings were outspread and presently hundreds of beautiful soaring forms were circling about the Navigator of the Stars.
"Don't they look lovely!" said Zaidie.

"I wonder what they would think if they could see us flying above New York or London or Paris with an escort like this.

I suppose they're going to show us the way.