“I daresay the process goes on to all eternity.”

“Like enough.”

The sublime idea, with its prospect of the infinite, held us for a time in silence.  At length my thoughts reverted to the original question which had been forgotten.

“Now, whether should I go to Mars or Venus?” I enquired, fixing my eyes on these planets and trying to estimate their relative distances from the earth.

Gazen made a mental computation, and replied with decision,

“Venus.”

“All right,” I responded.  “Venus let it be.”

CHAPTER V.

LEAVING THE EARTH.

“Check!”

I was playing a game of chess with an old acquaintance, Viscount ——­, after dinner, one evening, in the luxurious smoking-room of a fashionable club in the West End of London.

Having got his queen into a very tight corner, I sipped a glass of wine, lit a Turkish cigarette, and leaned back in my chair with an agreeable sense of triumph.

My companion, on the other hand, puffed rapidly at his cigar, and took a long drink of hot whiskey and water, then fixed his attention on the board, and stroked his beard with an air of the deepest gravity.  Had you only seen his face at that moment you would have supposed that all the care of a mighty empire weighed upon his shoulders.  The countenance of a grand vizier, engaged in considering an ultimatum of Lord Salisbury, were frivolous in comparison.  There is little doubt that if Lord ——­ had applied to the serious business of life as much earnest deliberation as he gave to the movement of a pawn, he would have made a very different figure in Society.  But having been born without any effort of his own to all that most men covet—­rank, wealth, and title—­he showed a rare spirit of contentment, and did his best to make the world happier by enjoying himself.

As he was a very slow player, I began to think of a matter which lay nearer to my heart than the game, I mean the project of travelling to Venus.  Tests of the new flying machine, by Professor Gazen and myself, as well as our enquiries into the character of Mr. Carmichael, having proved quite satisfactory, I had signed an agreement for the construction of an ethereal ship or car, equally capable of navigating the atmosphere to distant regions of the globe, and of traversing the immense reaches of empty space between the earth and the other members of the solar system.

As Miss Carmichael had determined to accompany her father, and assist him in his labours, it was built to carry three persons, with room to spare for another, and the trial trips, made secretly on foggy nights, had encouraged us to undertake the longer voyage into space.  I am glad to say that Professor Gazen, having taken part in one of these, had got the better of his caution, and finally made up his mind to join the expedition.

I suspect that he was influenced in his decision by the heroic example of Miss Carmichael.  At all events I know he tried very hard to dissuade her from going; but all his arguments could not shake her inflexible resolution, and truly, there was something sublime in the quiet fidelity of this young woman to her aged father which commanded our admiration.