ot too much to see her made My
Lady This, or the Marchioness of So-and-so, just because she's beautiful
and has millions, and the other fellow, whoever he may be, may have a
coronet that probably wants re-gilding; and yet, after all, it's only
the same old story in a rather more serious form--a woman against the
world. I suppose Papa Parmenter would show me the door to-morrow morning
if I, a poor explorer of the realm of Space, dared to tell him that I
want to marry his daughter.

"And yet how miserable and trivial all these wretched distinctions of
wealth and position look now; or would look if the world only knew and
believed what I could tell it--and that reminds me--shall I tell her, or
them? Of course, I must before long; simply because in a month or so
those American fellows will be on it, and they won't have any scruples
when it comes to a matter of scare head-lines. Yes, I think it may as
well be to-night as any other time. Still, it's a pretty awful thing for
a humble individual like myself to say, especially to a girl one happens
to be very much in love with--nothing less than the death-sentence of
Humanity. Ah, well, she's got to hear it some time and from some one,
and why shouldn't she hear it now and from me?"

When he got back to the house, there was a carriage at the door, and Mr
Parmenter was just coming down the avenue, followed by a man with a
small portmanteau in his hand.

"Sorry, Mr Lennard," he said, holding out his hand, "I've just had a
wire about a company tangle in London that I've got to go and shake out
at once, so I'll have to see what you have to show me later on. Still,
that needn't trouble anyone. It looks as if it were going to be a
splendid night for star-gazing, and I don't want Auriole disappointed,
so she can go up to the observatory with you at the proper time and see
what there is to be seen. See you later, I have only just about time to
get the connection for London."

Lennard was not altogether sorry that this accident had happened.
Naturally, the prospect of an hour or so with Auriole alone in his
temple of Science was very pleasant, and moreover, he felt that, as the
momentous tidings had to be told, he would prefer to tell them to her
first. And so it came about.

A little after half-past eleven that night Miss Auriole was looking
wonderingly into the eye-piece of the great Reflector, watching a tiny
little patch of mist, somewhat brighter towards one end than the other;