carried out, she requested him to give precise directions on the point, and to superintend the whole. A wooden cabin was to be erected at the foot of the tower, to provide better accommodation for casual visitors to the observatory than the spiral staircase and lead-flat afforded. As this cabin would be completely buried in the dense fir foliage which enveloped the lower part of the column and its pedestal, it would be no disfigurement to the general appearance. Finally, a path was to be made across the surrounding fallow, by which she might easily approach the scene of her new study.
When he was gone she wrote to the firm of opticians concerning the equatorial for whose reception all this was designed.
The undertaking was soon in full progress; and by degrees it became the talk of the hamlets round that Lady Constantine had given up melancholy for astronomy, to the great advantage of all who came in contact with her. One morning, when Tabitha Lark had come as usual to read, Lady Constantine chanced to be in a quarter of the house to which she seldom wandered; and while here she heard her maid talking confidentially to Tabitha in the adjoining room on the curious and sudden interest which Lady Constantine had acquired in the moon and stars.
'They do say all sorts of trumpery,' observed the handmaid. 'They say--though 'tis little better than mischief, to be sure--that it isn't the moon, and it isn't the stars, and it isn't the plannards, that my lady cares for, but for the pretty lad who draws 'em down from the sky to please her; and being a married example, and what with sin and shame knocking at every poor maid's door afore you can say, "Hands off, my dear," 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 any day.'
'Well, I wish I had half her chance!' sighed the lady's maid. And no more 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 where she knew that Swithin might be found.
He was in the plantation, setting up little sticks to mark where the wooden cabin was to stand. She called him to a remote place under the funereal trees.
'I have altered my mind,' she said. 'I can have nothing to do with this matter.'
'Indeed?' said Swithin, surprised.
'Astronomy is not my hobby any longer. And you are not my Astronomer Royal.'
'O Lady Constantine!' cried the youth, aghast. 'Why, the work is begun! I thought the equatorial was ordered.'
She dropped her voice, 

 Prev. P 41/230 next