Two on a Tower

  VII

  A fog defaced all the trees of the park that morning, the whiteatmosphere adhered to the ground like a fungoid growth from it, and madethe turfed undulations look slimy and raw. But Lady Constantine settleddown in her chair to await the coming of the late curate's son with aserenity which the vast blanks outside could neither baffle nor destroy.

  At two minutes to twelve the door-bell rang, and a look overspread thelady's face that was neither maternal, sisterly, nor amorous; but partookin an indescribable manner of all three kinds. The door was flung openand the young man was ushered in, the fog still clinging to his hair, inwhich she could discern a little notch where she had nipped off the curl.

  A speechlessness that socially was a defect in him was to her view apiquant attribute just now. He looked somewhat alarmed.

  'Lady Constantine, have I done anything, that you have sent--?' he beganbreathlessly, as he gazed in her face, with parted lips.

  'O no, of course not! I have decided to do something,--nothing more,'she smilingly said, holding out her hand, which he rather gingerlytouched. 'Don't look so concerned. Who makes equatorials?'

  This remark was like the drawing of a weir-hatch and she was speedilyinundated with all she wished to know concerning astronomical opticians.When he had imparted the particulars he waited, manifestly burning toknow whither these inquiries tended.

  'I am not going to buy you one,' she said gently.

  He looked as if he would faint.

  'Certainly not. I do not wish it. I--could not have accepted it,'faltered the young man.

  'But I am going to buy one for _myself_. I lack a hobby, and I shallchoose astronomy. I shall fix my equatorial on the column.'

  Swithin brightened up.

  'And I shall let you have the use of it whenever you choose. In brief,Swithin St. Cleeve shall be Lady Constantine's Astronomer Royal; andshe--and she--'

  'Shall be his Queen.' The words came not much the worse for beinguttered only in the tone of one anxious to complete a tardy sentence.

  'Well, that's what I have decided to do,' resumed Lady Constantine. 'Iwill write to these opticians at once.'

  There seemed to be no more for him to do than to thank her for theprivilege, whenever it should be available, which he promptly did, andthen made as if to go. But Lady Constantine detained him with, 'Have youever seen my library?'

  'No; never.'

  'You don't say you would like to see it.'

  'But I should.'

  'It is the third door on the right. You can find your way in, and youcan stay there as long as you like.'

  Swithin then left the morning-room for the apartment designated, andamused himself in that 'soul of the house,' as Cicero defined it, till heheard the lunch bell sounding from the turret, when he came down from thelibrary steps, and thought it time to go home. But at that moment aservant entered to inquire whether he would or would not prefer to havehis lunch brought in to him there; upon his replying in the affirmative alarge tray arrived on the stomach of a footman, and Swithin was greatlysurprised to see a whole pheasant placed at his disposal.

  Having breakfasted at eight that morning, and having been much in theopen air afterwards, the Adonis-astronomer's appetite assumed grandproportions. How much of that pheasant he might consistently eat withouthurting his dear patroness Lady Constantine's feelings, when he couldreadily eat it all, was a problem in which the reasonableness of a largerand larger quantity argued itself inversely as a smaller and smallerquantity remained. When, at length, he had finally decided on a terminalpoint in the body of the bird, the door was gently opened.

  'Oh, you have not finished?' came to him over his shoulder, in aconsiderate voice.

  'O yes, thank you, Lady Constantine,' he said, jumping up.

  'Why did you prefer to lunch in this awkward, dusty place?'

  'I thought--it would be better,' said Swithin simply.

  'There is fruit in the other room, if you like to come. But perhaps youwould rather not?'

  'O yes, I should much like to,' said Swithin, walking over his napkin,and following her as she led the way to the adjoining apartment.

  Here, while she asked him what he had been reading, he modestly venturedon an apple, in whose flavour he recognized the familiar taste of oldfriends robbed from her husband's orchards in his childhood, long beforeLady Constantine's advent on the scene. She supposed he had confined hissearch to his own sublime subject, astronomy?

  Swithin suddenly became older to the eye, as his thoughts reverted to thetopic thus reintroduced. 'Yes,' he informed her. 'I seldom read anyother subject. In these days the secret of productive study is to avoidwell.'

  'Did you find any good treatises?'

  'None. The theories in your books are almost as obsolete as thePtolemaic System. Only fancy, that magnificent Cyclopaedia,leather-bound, and stamped, and gilt, and wide margined, and bearing theblazon of your house in magnificent colours, says that the twinkling ofthe stars is probably caused by heavenly bodies passing in front of themin their revolutions.'

  'And is it not so? That was what I learned when I was a girl.'

  The modern Eudoxus now rose above the embarrassing horizon of LadyConstantine's great house, magnificent furniture, and awe-inspiringfootman. He became quite natural, all his self-consciousness fled, andhis eye spoke into hers no less than his lips to her ears, as he said,'How such a theory can have lingered on to this day beats conjecture!Francois Arago, as long as forty or fifty years ago, conclusivelyestablished the fact that scintillation is the simplest thing in theworld,--merely a matter of atmosphere. But I won't speak of this to younow. The comparative absence of scintillation in warm countries wasnoticed by Humboldt. Then, again, the scintillations vary. No starflaps his wings like Sirius when he lies low! He flashes out emeraldsand rubies, amethystine flames and sapphirine colours, in a manner quitemarvellous to behold, and this is only _one_ star! So, too, do Arcturus,and Capella, and lesser luminaries. . . . But I tire you with thissubject?'

  'On the contrary, you speak so beautifully that I could listen all day.'

  The astronomer threw a searching glance upon her for a moment; but therewas no satire in the warm soft eyes which met his own with a luxuriouscontemplative interest. 'Say some more of it to me,' she continued, in avoice not far removed from coaxing.

  After some hesitation the subject returned again to his lips, and he saidsome more--indeed, much more; Lady Constantine often throwing in anappreciative remark or question, often meditatively regarding him, inpursuance of ideas not exactly based on his words, and letting him go onas he would.

  Before he left the house the new astronomical project was set in train.The top of the column was to be roofed in, to form a proper observatory;and on the ground that he knew better than any one else how this was tobe carried out, she requested him to give precise directions on thepoint, and to superintend the whole. A wooden cabin was to be erected atthe foot of the tower, to provide better accommodation for casualvisitors to the observatory than the spiral staircase and lead-flatafforded. As this cabin would be completely buried in the dense firfoliage which enveloped the lower part of the column and its pedestal, itwould be no disfigurement to the general appearance. Finally, a path wasto be made across the surrounding fallow, by which she might easilyapproach the scene of her new study.

  When he was gone she wrote to the firm of opticians concerning theequatorial for whose reception all this was designed.

  The undertaking was soon in full progress; and by degrees it became thetalk of the hamlets round that Lady Constantine had given up melancholyfor astronomy, to the great advantage of all who came in contact withher. One morning, when Tabitha Lark had come as usual to read, LadyConstantine chanced to be in a quarter of the house to which she seldomwandered; and while here she heard her maid talking confidentially toTabitha in the adjoining room on the curious and sudden interest whichLady Constantine had acquired in the moon and stars.

  'They do
say all sorts of trumpery,' observed the handmaid. 'Theysay--though 'tis little better than mischief, to be sure--that it isn'tthe moon, and it isn't the stars, and it isn't the plannards, that mylady cares for, but for the pretty lad who draws 'em down from the sky toplease her; and being a married example, and what with sin and shameknocking at every poor maid's door afore you can say, "Hands off, mydear," to the civilest young man, she ought to set a better pattern.'

  Lady Constantine's face flamed up vividly.

  'If Sir Blount were to come back all of a sudden--oh, my!'

  Lady Constantine grew cold as ice.

  'There's nothing in it,' said Tabitha scornfully. 'I could prove it anyday.'

  'Well, I wish I had half her chance!' sighed the lady's maid. And nomore was said on the subject then.

  Tabitha's remark showed that the suspicion was quite in embryo as yet.Nevertheless, saying nothing to reveal what she had overheard,immediately after the reading Lady Constantine flew like a bird to whereshe knew that Swithin might be found.

  He was in the plantation, setting up little sticks to mark where thewooden cabin was to stand. She called him to a remote place under thefunereal trees.

  'I have altered my mind,' she said. 'I can have nothing to do with thismatter.'

  'Indeed?' said Swithin, surprised.

  'Astronomy is not my hobby any longer. And you are not my AstronomerRoyal.'

  'O Lady Constantine!' cried the youth, aghast. 'Why, the work is begun!I thought the equatorial was ordered.'

  She dropped her voice, though a Jericho shout would not have beenoverheard: 'Of course astronomy is my hobby privately, and you are to bemy Astronomer Royal, and I still furnish the observatory; but not to theouter world. There is a reason against my indulgence in such scientificfancies openly; and the project must be arranged in this wise. The wholeenterprise is yours: you rent the tower of me: you build the cabin: youget the equatorial. I simply give permission, since you desire it. Thepath that was to be made from the hill to the park is not to be thoughtof. There is to be no communication between the house and the column.The equatorial will arrive addressed to you, and its cost I will paythrough you. My name must not appear, and I vanish entirely from theundertaking. . . . This blind is necessary,' she added, sighing. 'Good-bye!'

  'But you _do_ take as much interest as before, and it _will_ be yoursjust the same?' he said, walking after her. He scarcely comprehended thesubterfuge, and was absolutely blind as to its reason.

  'Can you doubt it? But I dare not do it openly.'

  With this she went away; and in due time there circulated through theparish an assertion that it was a mistake to suppose Lady Constantine hadanything to do with Swithin St. Cleeve or his star-gazing schemes. Shehad merely allowed him to rent the tower of her for use as hisobservatory, and to put some temporary fixtures on it for that purpose.

  After this Lady Constantine lapsed into her former life of loneliness;and by these prompt measures the ghost of a rumour which had barelystarted into existence was speedily laid to rest. It had probablyoriginated in her own dwelling, and had gone but little further. Yet,despite her self-control, a certain north window of the Great House, thatcommanded an uninterrupted view of the upper ten feet of the column,revealed her to be somewhat frequently gazing from it at a rotunditywhich had begun to appear on the summit. To those with whom she came incontact she sometimes addressed such remarks as, 'Is young Mr. St. Cleevegetting on with his observatory? I hope he will fix his instrumentswithout damaging the column, which is so interesting to us as being inmemory of my dear husband's great-grandfather--a truly brave man.'

  On one occasion her building-steward ventured to suggest to her that, SirBlount having deputed to her the power to grant short leases in hisabsence, she should have a distinctive agreement with Swithin, as betweenlandlord and tenant, with a stringent clause against his driving nailsinto the stonework of such an historical memorial. She replied that shedid not wish to be severe on the last representative of such old andrespected parishioners as St. Cleeve's mother's family had been, and ofsuch a well-descended family as his father's; so that it would only benecessary for the steward to keep an eye on Mr. St. Cleeve's doings.

  Further, when a letter arrived at the Great House from Hilton and Pimm's,the opticians, with information that the equatorial was ready and packed,and that a man would be sent with it to fix it, she replied to that firmto the effect that their letter should have been addressed to Mr. St.Cleeve, the local astronomer, on whose behalf she had made the inquiries;that she had nothing more to do with the matter; that he would receivethe instrument and pay the bill,--her guarantee being given for thelatter performance.