What interested Marie most of all,
however, was the question, "Were there people on the moon?" Ludwig
promised to procure for her the fanciful descriptions of a supposed
journey made to the moon by some naturalists in the preceding century.
Innocent enough reading for a girl of sixteen!
"I wonder what the people are like who live on the moon?"
And Ludwig's mental reply was: "One of them stands here by your side!"
After a while Marie wearied of the heavenly phenomena, and when the hour
came at which she usually went to bed she was overcome by sleep.
In vain Ludwig sought to keep her awake by telling her about the Imbrian
Ocean, and relating the wonders of Mount Aristarchus. Marie could not
keep from nodding, and several times she caught herself dreaming.
"I shall not wait to see the end of the eclipse," she said to Ludwig.
"It is very pretty and interesting, but I am sleepy."
She was yet so much a child that she would not have given up her sweet
slumbers for an eclipse of all the planets of the universe.
Ludwig accompanied her to the door of her apartments, bade her good
night, and returned to the observatory.
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