Moreover his mind was engaged in insisting that the Evening Star is not to be called Venus, because of certain stories; and he was vowed to defend his lady from any allusion to them.

This occupied him.

By degrees, the visible asserted its authority; his look on the coin fell to speculating.

Oddly, too, he was often right;--the money, staked on the other side, would have won.

He considered it rather a plain calculation than a guess.
Philosophy withdrew him from his temporary interest in the tricks of a circling white marble ball.