t his
complaint to Captain Servadac, and begged him to assign him a chamber,
no matter how small, in which he should be free to carry on his task in
silence and without molestation. So readily did Servadac promise to do
everything in his power to provide him with the accommodation for which
he asked, that the professor was put into such a manifest good temper
that the captain ventured to speak upon the matter that was ever
uppermost in his mind.

"I do not mean," he began timidly, "to cast the least imputation of
inaccuracy upon any of your calculations, but would you allow me, my
dear professor, to suggest that you should revise your estimate of the
duration of Gallia's period of revolution. It is so important, you know,
so all important; the difference of one half minute, you know, would so
certainly mar the expectation of reunion with the earth--"

And seeing a cloud gathering on Rosette's face, he added:

"I am sure Lieutenant Procope would be only too happy to render you any
assistance in the revision."

"Sir," said the professor, bridling up, "I want no assistant; my
calculations want no revision. I never make an error. I have made my
reckoning as far as Gallia is concerned. I am now making a like estimate
of the elements of Nerina."

Conscious how impolitic it would be to press this matter further, the
captain casually remarked that he should have supposed that all the
elements of Nerina had been calculated long since by astronomers on the
earth. It was about as unlucky a speech as he could possibly have made.
The professor glared at him fiercely.

"Astounding, sir!" he exclaimed. "Yes! Nerina was a planet then;
everything that appertained to the planet was determined; but Nerina is
a moon now. And do you not think, sir, that we have a right to know as
much about our moon as those _terrestrials_"--and he curled his lip as
he spoke with a contemptuous emphasis--"know of theirs?"

"I beg pardon," said the corrected captain.

"Well then, never mind," replied the professor, quickly appeased; "only
will you have the goodness to get me a proper place for study?"

"I will, as I promised, do all I can," answered Servadac.

"Very good," said the professor. "No immediate hurry; an hour hence will
do."

But in spite of this condescension on the part of the man of science,
some hours had to elapse before any place of retreat could be discovered
likely to suit his requirements; but at length a little nook was fou