"Certainly, if you care to try it. Lady never held knight against his
will. But have you forgotten that, after the resources of this planet are
exhausted, as you seem to think they are soon likely to be, you and I have
other worlds to conquer? Perhaps in that work you may find diversion
powerful enough to draw you out of yourself and, possibly, opportunities
for some heart culture."

I must explain that this was a reference to a plan of life we were marking
out for ourselves. Margaret was an enthusiast on the subject of astronomy.
I would include myself in the same remark, only the word enthusiast did
not fit my temperament at that time. But our tastes agreed perfectly in
that matter, and we had always read with avidity everything we could find
on the subject. Margaret, however, was the student, and as she had
developed great proficiency in mathematics, she had decided to make
astronomy her profession.

It was understood that I was to perform the easier part of furnishing the
money for an observatory and instruments of our own, and I was determined
to keep pace with Margaret in her studies as well as I could in an
amateurish way, so that she might be able to retain me as an assistant. We
were to be married at sunrise sharp, on the first day of the next century,
and to lay the corner-stone of our observatory at the exact moment of the
summer solstice of the same year. These were Margaret's suggestions, but
even I was not averse to letting my friends see I had a little sentiment.

That night I dreamed of almost everything we had been talking about, but
lay awake at intervals, wondering if I could, by force of will, work out
the reform in my character which Margaret desired. The night passed, and
it was just as I was rising that a thought flashed upon me which I
determined to put into execution at the first opportunity. This came early