Mr.
Heard was vastly pleased and puzzled by the phenomenon--so pleased that
he gave utterance to one of the longest speeches he had made since his
arrival on Nepenthe. He said:
"I have seen many funny things here, Denis. But this is the funniest of
all. The spectacle seems to have been providentially arranged, as a
sort of BONNE BOUCHE, for my last evening on the island. Dear me. Now
there are two again. And now they are behind each other once more. A
kind of celestial hide and seek. Most interesting. I wish Keith could
see it. Or that dear Count Caloveglia. He would be sure to say
something polite. . . . The inconstant moon! I know, at last, what the
poet meant by that expression, though the word inconstant strikes me as
hardly forcible enough. The skittish moon, I should be inclined to call
it. The skittish moon. The frivolous moon. The giddy moon. The
quite-too-absurd moon. . . . There it goes again! Very curious. What
can it be? . . . Why, this is the reverse of an eclipse, my boy. The
disk is darkened during an eclipse.
Pages:
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738