'Perhaps it was dropped from the clouds by a bird,' she said.

'Why should you be so good to me?' he cried.

'One good turn deserves another,' answered she.

'Dear Lady Constantine! Whatever discoveries result from this shall
be ascribed to you as much as to me. Where should I have been
without your gift?'

'You would possibly have accomplished your purpose just the same,
and have been so much the nobler for your struggle against ill-luck.
I hope that now you will be able to proceed with your large
telescope as if nothing had happened.'

'O yes, I will, certainly. I am afraid I showed too much feeling,
the reverse of stoical, when the accident occurred. That was not
very noble of me.'

'There is nothing unnatural in such feeling at your age. When you
are older you will smile at such moods, and at the mishaps that gave
rise to them.'

'Ah, I perceive you think me weak in the extreme,' he said, with
just a shade of pique. 'But you will never realize that an incident
which filled but a degree in the circle of your thoughts covered the
whole circumference of mine. No person can see exactly what and
where another's horizon is.'

They soon parted, and she re-entered the house, where she sat