ng through that telescope."

The reproach was in reality a compliment, and Emmet would have been
disappointed had his suggestion been received with favour.

"Since we 're comparing politics with astronomy," Leigh answered, "let
me ask who was the governor of this State fifty years ago? Perhaps he
spent a lifetime struggling for the place, and after his two years of
office he was down and out for good, with the privilege of hanging his
portrait among a hundred others on the walls of the State Library. But
take any name connected with a scientific discovery, and it lasts as
long as the world endures. Take even a lesser name--never mind your
Galileos and Herschels. There's Asaph Hall, who discovered the moons
of Mars, and already, before his death, he is enjoying his immortality."

"But I thought you told me the instrument was no good," Emmet persisted.

"Not as bad as that. It is n't what I should like, but a man must do
something, even if it's only to keep in practice. It might stand him
in stead some day in a larger place."

Emmet was too much absorbed in himself to catch the hint of
restlessness these words conveyed. Leigh's profession, like the
ministry, made him, in the mayor's eyes, a being apart from the life
with which he was familiar. It naturally did not occur to him that the
astronomer had been driven back to his duty by the scourge of
suffering, much less that his own wife had wielded the whip. He saw
only an inexplicable devotion to an ideal pursuit.

"Well," Leigh continued, with a sudden change of manner, "and how is
the mayoralty getting on?"

Emmet's face darkened. "I had it out with Bat Quayle this morning and
turned him down hard. He 'll get back at me sooner or later. But that
is n't what I came up to see you about. The fact is, I 'm in trouble."

Leigh glanced tentatively at the sheets of paper on his table, covered
with unfinished calculations, and hesitated; but his visitor's manner
implied an urgent need.

"If I can be of any help to you"--he suggested.

"I'm not so sure of that," Emmet answered gloomily, "as that I want to
tell some one what an awful fool I 've made of myself."

"There are others," Leigh replied, with a bitter grin. "I know a
triple-expansion ass not a hundred miles from here; so fire away."

Emmet went over to the brasier and warmed his hands, as if embarrassed
for words with which to begin. Leigh fumbled in the pocket of his
greatcoat and produced his