After this lecture the Capitalist stepped forward and applied his eye to the lens.  I suspect it to have been shut most of the time, for I observe a good many elderly people adjust the organ of vision to any optical instrument in that way.  I suppose it is from the instinct of protection to the eye, the same instinct as that which makes the raw militia-man close it when he pulls the, trigger of his musket the first time.  He expressed himself highly gratified, however, with what he saw, and retired from the instrument to make room for the Young Girl.

She threw her hair back and took her position at the instrument.  Saint Simeon Stylites the Younger explained the wonders of the moon to her,—­Tycho and the grooves radiating from it, Kepler and Copernicus with their craters and ridges, and all the most brilliant shows of this wonderful little world.  I thought he was more diffuse and more enthusiastic in his descriptions than he had been with the older members of the party.  I don’t doubt the old gentleman who lived so long on the top of his pillar would have kept a pretty sinner (if he could have had an elevator to hoist her up to him) longer than he would have kept her grandmother.  These young people are so ignorant, you know.  As for our Scheherezade, her delight was unbounded, and her curiosity insatiable.  If there were any living creatures there, what odd things they must be.  They could n’t have any lungs, nor any hearts.  What a pity!  Did they ever die?  How could they expire if they didn’t breathe?  Burn up?  No air to burn in.  Tumble into some of those horrid pits, perhaps, and break all to bits.  She wondered how the young people there liked it, or whether there were any young people there; perhaps nobody was young and nobody was old, but they were like mummies all of them—­what an idea —­two mummies making love to each other!  So she went on in a rattling, giddy kind of way, for she was excited by the strange scene in which she found herself, and quite astonished the Young Astronomer with her vivacity.  All at once she turned to him.

Will you show me the double star you said I should see?

With the greatest pleasure,—­he said, and proceeded to wheel the ponderous dome, and then to adjust the instrument, I think to the one in Andromeda, or that in Cygnus, but I should not know one of them from the other.

How beautiful!—­she said as she looked at the wonderful object.—–­One is orange red and one is emerald green.

The young man made an explanation in which he said something about complementary colors.

Goodness!—­exclaimed the Landlady.—–­What! complimentary to our party?