"I can explain, perhaps," said Marius. "I can explain all I know and you can do with it
what you will. Knowledge has not been my salvation of late. I am lonesome."
"I'll stay with you," Thorne said. This sweet camaraderie was breaking his heart.
A long time they walked, Thorne becoming stronger again, forgetting the warmth of the
tavern as if it had been a delusion.
At last they came to a handsome house, with a high peaked roof, and many windows.
Marius put his key into the door, and they left the blowing snow behind, stepping into a
broad hallway.
A soft light came from the rooms beyond. The walls and ceiling were of finely oiled
wood, the same as the floor, with all corners neatly fitted.
"A genius of the modern world made this house for me," Marius explained. "I've lived in
many houses, in many styles. This is but one way. Come inside with me."
The great room of the house had a rectangular stone fireplace built into its wooden wall.
And there the fire was stacked waiting to be lighted. Through glass walls of remarkable
size, Thorne saw the lights of the city. He realized that they were on the edge of the hill,
and that a valley lay below them.
"Come," said Marius, "I must introduce you to the other who lives here with me."
This startled Thorne, because he had not detected the presence of anyone else, but he
followed Marius through a doorway out of the great room into another chamber on the
left, and there he saw a strange sight which mystified him.
Many tables filled the room, or perhaps it was one great broad table. But it was covered
all over with a small landscape of hills and valleys, towns and cities. It was covered with
little trees, and even little shrubbery, and here and there was snow, as if one town lay
under winter and another lay under spring or summer.
Countless houses crowded the landscape, many with twinkling lights, and there were
sparkling lakes made of some hard substance to imitate the gleam of water. There were
tunnels through the mountains.
And on curving iron tracks through this little wilderness there ran little railroad trains,
seemingly made out of iron, like those of the great modern world.
Over this tiny world, there presided a blood drinker who didn't bother to look up at
Thorne as he entered. The blood drinker had been a young male when he was made. He
was tall, but very slight of build, with very delicate fingers. His hair was the faded blond
more common among Englishmen than Norsemen.
He sat near the table, where before him was a cleared space devoted to his paintbrushes,
and to several bottles of paint, while with his hands he painted the bark of a small tree, as
if in readiness to put it into the world that stretched out all over the room, surrounding
and almost enclosing him.
A rush of pleasure passed through Thorne as he looked over this little world. It struck
him suddenly that he could have spent an hour inspecting all of the tiny buildings. It was
not the harsh great world outside, but something precious and protected, and even slightly
enchanting.
There was more than one small black train which ran along upon the wandering tracks,
and a small droning noise came from these trains as if from bees in a hive. The trains had
lights inside their tiny windows.
All the myriad details of this small wonderland seemed to be correct.
"I feel I'm the frost giant in this room," Thorne whispered reverently.
It was an offering of friendship to the youngish male who continued to apply the brown
paint to the bark of the tiny tree which he held so delicately between his left fingers. But
the youngish male blood drinker did not respond.