ng down the results of what they learned.

In was in course of these studies that the whole wonder of the universe
came home to him for the first time. He looked upon the marvel of the
heavens, the mighty procession of the planets, the rising and setting
of the vast suns that burn beyond them in the depths of space, weighing
their bulk and measuring their differences, and trembled with mingled
joy and awe. Were these the heritage of man? Would he ever visit them
in some unknown state and age? Or must they remain eternally far and
alien? This is what he longed to learn, and to him astronomy was a
gateway to knowledge, if only he could discover how to pass the gate.

Godfrey had not the true scientific spirit, or a yearning for
information, even about the stars, for its own sake. He wanted to
ascertain how these affected _him_ and the human race of which he was a
member. In short, he sought an answer to the old question: Are we
merely the spawn of our little earth, destined to perish, as the earth
itself must do one day, or, through whatever changes we must pass, are
we as immortal as the universe and the Might that made it, whatever
that may be? That was his problem, the same which perplexes every high
and thinking soul, and at this impressionable period of his life it
scarcely ever left him. There he would sit with brooding eyes and bent
brow seeking the answer, but as yet finding none.

Once Juliette discovered him thus, having come to the observatory to
tell him that his dinner had been waiting for half an hour, and for a
while watched him unnoted with the little shaded lamp shining on his
face. Instantly, in her quick fashion, she christened him, _Hibou_, and
_Hibou_ or Owl, became his nickname in that establishment. Indeed, with
his dark eyes and strongly marked features, wrapped in a contemplative
calm such as the study of the stars engenders, in that gloom he did
look something like an owl, however different may have been his
appearance on other occasions.

"What are you thinking of, Monsieur Godfrey?" she asked.

He came back to earth with a start.

"The stars and Man," he answered, colouring.

"_Mon Dieu!_" she exclaimed, "I think man is enough to study without
the stars, which we shall never visit."

"How do you know that, Mademoiselle?"

"I know it because we are here and they are there, far, far away. Also
we die and they go on for ever."

"What is space, and what are death and time?" queried Godfr