'He is going to meet the English and American astronomers there at the
end of the year. After that he will most likely go on to the Cape.' 'But before the end of the year--what places did he tell you of visiting?' 'Let me collect myself; he is going to the observatory of Cambridge, United States, to meet some gentlemen there, and spy through the great
refractor. Then there's the observatory of Chicago; and I think he has a
letter to make him beknown to a gentleman in the observatory at
Marseilles--and he wants to go to Vienna--and Poulkowa, too, he means to
take in his way--there being great instruments and a lot of astronomers
at each place.' 'Does he take Europe or America first?' she asked faintly, for the
account seemed hopeless.
Mrs. Martin could not tell till she had heard from Swithin. It depended
upon what he had decided to do on the day of his leaving England.
Lady Constantine bade the old people good-bye, and dragged her weary
limbs homeward. The fatuousness of forethought had seldom been evinced
more ironically. Had she done nothing to hinder him, he would have kept
up an unreserved communication with her, and all might have been well.
For that night she could undertake nothing further, and she waited for
the next day. Then at once she wrote two letters to Swithin, directing
one to Marseilles observatory, one to the observatory of Cambridge, U.S.,
as being the only two spots on the face of the globe at which they were
likely to intercept him. Each letter stated to him the urgent reasons
which existed for his return, and contained a passionately regretful
intimation that the annuity on which his hopes depended must of necessity
be sacrificed by the completion of their original contract without delay.
But letter conveyance was too slow a process to satisfy her. To send an
epitome of her epistles by telegraph was, after all, indispensable.
Such an imploring sentence as she desired to address to him it would be
hazardous to despatch from Warborne, and she took a dreary journey to a
strange town on purpose to send it from an office at which she was
unknown.
There she handed in her message, addressing it to the port of arrival of
the Occidental, and again returned home.
She waited; and there being no return telegram, the inference was that he
had somehow missed hers. For an answer to either of her letters she
would have to wait long enough to allow him time to reach one of the
observatories--a tedious while.
Then she considered the weakness, the stultifying nature of her attempt
at recall.