"
"I shouldn't wonder," said Zaidie; "I've often heard my father say that
that was probably what happened. It's all very marvellous, isn't it?
death in one place, life in another, all beginnings and endings, and yet
no actual beginning or end of anything anywhere. That's eternity, I
suppose."
"It's just about as near as the finite intellect can get to it, I should
say," replied Redgrave. "But I don't think metaphysics are much in our
line. If you've finished we may as well go and have a look at the
realities."
"Which the metaphysicians," laughed Zaidie as she rose, "would tell you
are not realities at all, or only realities so far as you can think
about them. 'Thinks,' in short, instead of real things. But meanwhile
I've got the breakfast _things_ to put away, so you can go up on deck
and put the telescopes in order."
When she joined him a few minutes later in the deck-chamber the
three-quarter disc of Jupiter was rapidly approaching the full.
Its phases are invisible from the Earth owing to the enormous distance;
but from the deck of the _Astronef_ they had been plainly visible for
some days, and, since the huge planet turns on its axis in less than ten
hours, or with more than twice the speed of the Earth's rotation, the
phases followed each other very rapidly.
Thus at twelve o'clock noon by _Astronef_ time they might have seen a
gigantic rim of silver-blue overarching the whole vault of heaven in
front of them.
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