The summer passed away, and autumn, with its infinite suite of tints,
came creeping on. Darker grew the evenings, tearfuller the moonlights,
and heavier the dews. Meanwhile the comet had waxed to its largest
dimensions,--so large that not only the nucleus but a portion of the tail
had been visible in broad day. It was now on the wane, though every
night the equatorial still afforded an opportunity of observing the
singular object which would soon disappear altogether from the heavens
for perhaps thousands of years.
But the astronomer of the Rings-Hill Speer was no longer a match for his
celestial materials. Scientifically he had become but a dim vapour of
himself; the lover had come into him like an armed man, and cast out the
student, and his intellectual situation was growing a life-and-death
matter.
The resolve of the pair had been so far kept: they had not seen each
other in private for three months. But on one day in October he ventured
to write a note to her:-'I can do nothing! I have ceased to study, ceased to observe. The
equatorial is useless to me. This affection I have for you absorbs my
life, and outweighs my intentions. The power to labour in this
grandest of fields has left me. I struggle against the weakness till
I think of the cause, and then I bless her. But the very desperation
of my circumstances has suggested a remedy; and this I would inform
you of at once.
'Can you come to me, since I must not come to you? I will wait to-
morrow night at the edge of the plantation by which you would enter to
the column. I will not detain you; my plan can be told in ten words.' The night after posting this missive to her he waited at the spot
mentioned.
It was a melancholy evening for coming abroad. A blusterous wind had
risen during the day, and still continued to increase. Yet he stood
watchful in the darkness, and was ultimately rewarded by discerning a
shady muffled shape that embodied itself from the field, accompanied by
the scratching of silk over stubble. There was no longer any disguise as
to the nature of their meeting. It was a lover's assignation, pure and
simple; and boldly realizing it as such he clasped her in his arms.
'I cannot bear this any longer!' he exclaimed. 'Three months since I saw
you alone! Only a glimpse of you in church, or a bow from the distance,
in all that time! What a fearful struggle this keeping apart has been!' 'Yet I would have had strength to persist, since it seemed best,' she
murmured when she could speak, 'had not your words on your condition so
alarmed and saddened me. This inability of yours to work, or study, or
observe,--it is terrible! So terrible a sting is it to my conscience
that your hint about a remedy has brought me instantly.' 'Yet I don't altogether mind it, since it is you, my dear, who have
displaced the work; and yet the loss of time nearly distracts me, when I
have neither the power to work nor the delight of your company.' 'But your remedy! O, I cannot help guessing it! Yes; you are going
away!' 'Let us ascend the column; we can speak more at ease there. Then I will
explain all. I would not ask you to climb so high but the hut is not yet
furnished.' He entered the cabin at the foot, and having lighted a small lantern,
conducted her up the hollow staircase to the top, where he closed the
slides of the dome to keep out the wind, and placed the observing-chair
for her.