d steadfastness shown in every line of
her pretty face. They spent a charming day and evening together, and he
was content. Once or twice, just for a moment, the young woman seemed
abstracted, but it was only for a moment, and the lover thought little
of the circumstance. He was happy when he bade her good-night.
"To-morrow, dear," said he, "we will talk of something of greatest
importance to me, of importance to us both." She blushed and made no
answer for a second. Then she said that she loved him dearly, and that
what affected one must affect the other, and that she would look for him
very early in the afternoon. He went to his hotel buoyant. The world was
good to him.

When Corbett called at the Morrison mansion the next day he entered
without ringing, as was his habit, and went straight to the library,
expecting to find Nell there. He was disappointed, but there were traces
of her recent presence. There was an astronomical map open upon the
table, and books and reviews lay all about, each, open, with a marker
indicating a special page. A little glove lay upon the floor, and
Corbett picked it up and kissed it.

He summoned a servant and sent upstairs to announce his presence; then
turned instinctively to note what branch of her favorite study was now
attracting his sweetheart's attention. He picked up one of the open
reviews, an old one by the way, and read a marked passage there. It was
as follows:

"It will always be more difficult for us to communicate with the people
of Mars than to receive signals from them, because of our position and
phases. It is the nocturnal terrestrial hemisphere that is turned toward
the planet Mars in the periods when we approach most nearly to it, and
it shows us in full its lighted hemisphere. But communication is
possible."

He looked at a map. It was a great chart of the surface of Mars, made by
the famous Italian Schiaparelli, and he looked at more of the reviews
and found ever the same subject considered in the marked articles. All
related to Mars. He was puzzled but delighted. "The dear girl has a
hobby," he thought. "Well, she shall enjoy it to the utmost."

Nelly entered the room. Her face lighted up with pleasure when she met
her fiance, but assumed a more thoughtful look as she saw what he was
reading. She welcomed him, though, as kindly as any lover could demand,
and he, of course, was joyously content. "Still an astronomer, I see,"
he said, "and apparently with a spec