Lady Constantine, if narrowly observed at this time, would have seemed to
be deeply troubled in conscience, and particularly after the interview
above described. Ash Wednesday occurred in the calendar a few days
later, and she went to morning service with a look of genuine contrition
on her emotional and yearning countenance.
Besides herself the congregation consisted only of the parson, clerk,
school-children, and three old people living on alms, who sat under the
reading-desk; and thus, when Mr. Torkingham blazed forth the denunciatory
sentences of the Commination, nearly the whole force of them seemed to
descend upon her own shoulders. Looking across the empty pews she saw
through the one or two clear panes of the window opposite a youthful
figure in the churchyard, and the very feeling against which she had
tried to pray returned again irresistibly.
When she came out and had crossed into the private walk, Swithin came
forward to speak to her. This was a most unusual circumstance, and
argued a matter of importance.
'I have made an amazing discovery in connexion with the variable stars,'
he exclaimed. 'It will excite the whole astronomical world, and the
world outside but little less. I had long suspected the true secret of
their variability; but it was by the merest chance on earth that I hit
upon a proof of my guess. Your equatorial has done it, my good, kind
Lady Constantine, and our fame is established for ever!' He sprang into the air, and waved his hat in his triumph.
'Oh, I am so glad--so rejoiced!' she cried. 'What is it? But don't stop
to tell me. Publish it at once in some paper; nail your name to it, or
somebody will seize the idea and appropriate it,--forestall you in some
way. It will be Adams and Leverrier over again.' 'If I may walk with you I will explain the nature of the discovery. It accounts for the occasional green tint of Castor, and every difficulty.
I said I would be the Copernicus of the stellar system, and I have begun to
be. Yet who knows?' 'Now don't be so up and down! I shall not understand your explanation,
and I would rather not know it. I shall reveal it if it is very grand.
Women, you know, are not safe depositaries of such valuable secrets.
You may walk with me a little way, with great pleasure. Then go and write
your account, so as to insure your ownership of the discovery. . . .
But how you have watched!' she cried, in a sudden accession of anxiety, as
she turned to look more closely at him. 'The orbits of your eyes are
leaden, and your eyelids are red and heavy. Don't do it--pray don't.