"Merciful heavens! Suppose she were to predecease--he would have the moon, and be unable to appreciate it. He might let it get dusty, have the craters and seas choked; perhaps the mountain-tops knocked off. He must not have it." "It cannot be helped. The moon must take its chance." "It must not be. She _must_ outlive the Councillor." "If you can manage that--well." "But--supposing she does outlive him, she is not immortal. Some day she must die. Who will have the moon then?" "I suppose, her daughter." "What will the daughter do with it?" "Melt it up for waxing the floors." Professor Maedler uttered a cry of dismay. "The object is one of incalculable scientific value. Has the daughter no husband, a man of intelligence, to stay her hand?" "The daughter is unmarried. There was some talk of a theological candidate--" "A theological candidate! An embryo pastor! Just powers! These men are all obscurantists. He will melt up the moon thinking thereby to establish the authority of Moses." "That came to nothing. She is disengaged." Professor Maedler paced the room. Perspiration bedewed his brow. He wiped his forehead, more drops formed. Suddenly he stood still. "Rollmann," he said, in a hollow voice, "I must--I will have that moon, even if I have to marry the daughter to secure it." "By all means. Minna is a pleasant young lady." "Minna! Minna! is that her name?" asked the distracted professor; then, more coolly, "I do not care a rush what her name is. I want, not her, but the moon." "She is no longer in the bloom of early youth." "She is an exhausted world; a globe of volcanic cinder." "She is of real solid worth." "Solid--she is of solid wax--white beeswax." "If she becomes yours--" "I will exhibit her at my lectures to the students." "As you are so much older, some provision will have to be made in the event of your death." "I will leave her to the Dorpat museum, with directions to the curator to keep the dust off her." "My dear Professor Maedler, I am speaking of the young lady, _you_ of the moon." "Ah so! I had forgotten the incumbrance. Yes, I will marry the moon. I will carry her about with me, hug her in my arms, protect her most carefully from the fingers of the Custom House officers. I will procure an ukase from the Emperor to admit her unfingered over the frontier." "And Minna!" "What Minna?" "The young lady." "Ah so! She had slipped out of my reckoning. She shall watch the box whilst I sleep, and whilst she sleeps I will keep guard." "Be reasonable, Maedler. Do you mean, in sober earnest, to invite Minna Witte to be your wife?" "If I cannot get the moon any other way." "But you have not even seen her yet." "What does that matter? I have seen the moon." "And you are in earnest!" "I _will_ have the moon." "Then, of course, you will have to propose." "I propose!" "And, of course, to make love." "I make love!"