"Pooh! That's a very petty parish-vestry sort of way to look at things. Just what you might expect in a little bit of a world like this. In Jupiter now"--she paused, and turned her bright eyes upon a deep-set pair that were watching her amusedly. "Mr. Yelverton, I hope you are not going to insist upon it that Jupiter is too hot to do anything but blaze and shine and keep life going on his little satellites--are you?" "O dear no!" he replied. "I wouldn't dream of such a thing." "Very well. We will assume, then, that Jupiter is a habitable world, as there is no reason why he shouldn't be that _I_ can see---just for the sake of enlarging Elizabeth's mind. And, having assumed that, the least we can suppose--seeing that a few billions of years are of no account in the chronology of the heavenly bodies--is that a world on such a superior scale was fully up to _our_ little standard before we began. I mean our present standard. Don't you think we may reasonably suppose that, Mr. Yelverton?" "In the absence of information to the contrary, I think we may," he said. "Though I would ask to be allowed to reserve my own opinion." "Certainly. I don't ask for anybody's opinion. I am merely throwing out suggestions. I want to extend Elizabeth's vision in these matters beyond the range of the sun and moon. So I say that Jupiter--and if not Jupiter, one of the countless millions of cooler planets, perhaps ever so much bigger than he is, which lie out in the other sun-systems--was well on with his railways and telegraphs when we began to get a crust, and to condense vapours. You will allow me to say as much as that, for the sake of argument?" "I think you argue beautifully," said Mr. Yelverton. "Very well then. Millions of years ago, if you had lived in Jupiter, you could have travelled in luxury as long as your life lasted, and seen countries whose numbers and resources never came to an end. Think of the railway system, and the shipping interest, of a world of that size!" "_Don't_, Patty," interposed Elizabeth. "Think what a little, little life it would have been, by comparison! If we can't make it do us now, what would its insufficiency be under such conditions?"