."

Without noticing the interruption, Servadac continued his own remarks,
"The comet then, I see, is to reach its aphelion on the 15th of January,
exactly a twelvemonth after passing its perihelion."

"A twelvemonth! Not a Gallian twelvemonth?" exclaimed Rosette.

Servadac looked bewildered. Lieutenant Procope could not suppress a
smile.

"What are you laughing at?" demanded the professor, turning round upon
him angrily.

"Nothing, sir; only it amuses me to see how you want to revise the
terrestrial calendar."

"I want to be logical, that's all."

"By all manner of means, my dear professor, let us be logical."

"Well, then, listen to me," resumed the professor, stiffly. "I presume
you are taking it for granted that the Gallian year--by which I mean
the time in which Gallia makes one revolution round the sun--is equal in
length to two terrestrial years."

They signified their assent.

"And that year, like every other year, ought to be divided into twelve
months."

"Yes, certainly, if you wish it," said the captain, acquiescing.

"If I wish it!" exclaimed Rosette. "Nothing of the sort! Of course a
year must have twelve months!"

"Of course," said the captain.

"And how many days will make a month?" asked the professor.

"I suppose sixty or sixty-two, as the case may be. The days now are only
half as long as they used to be," answered the captain.

"Servadac, don't be thoughtless!" cried Rosette, with all the petulant
impatience of the old pedagogue. "If the days are only half as long
as they were, sixty of them cannot make up a twelfth part of Gallia's
year--cannot be a month."

"I suppose not," replied the confused captain.

"Do you not see, then," continued the astronomer, "that if a Gallian
month is twice as long as a terrestrial month, and a Gallian day is only
half as long as a terrestrial day, there must be a hundred and twenty
days in every month?"

"No doubt you are right, professor," said Count Timascheff; "but do you
not think that the use of a new calendar such as this would practically
be very troublesome?"

"Not at all! not at all! I do not intend to use any other," was the
professor's bluff reply.

After pondering for a few moments, the captain spoke again. "According,
then, to this new calendar, it isn't the middle of May at all; it must
now be some time in March."

"Yes," said the professor, "to-day is the 26th of March. It is the
266th day of the Gallian year. It corresponds