But beyond the simple fact that she was a widow he for some time gained
not an atom of intelligence concerning her. There was no one of whom he
could inquire but his grandmother, and she could tell him nothing about a
lady who dwelt far away at Melchester.
Several months slipped by thus; and no feeling within him rose to
sufficient strength to force him out of a passive attitude. Then by the
merest chance his granny stated in one of her rambling epistles that Lady
Constantine was coming to live again at Welland in the old house, with
her child, now a little boy between three and four years of age.
Swithin, however, lived on as before.
But by the following autumn a change became necessary for the young man
himself. His work at the Cape was done. His uncle's wishes that he
should study there had been more than observed. The materials for his
great treatise were collected, and it now only remained for him to
arrange, digest, and publish them, for which purpose a return to England
was indispensable.
So the equatorial was unscrewed, and the stand taken down; the
astronomer's barrow-load of precious memoranda, and rolls upon rolls of
diagrams, representing three years of continuous labour, were safely
packed; and Swithin departed for good and all from the shores of Cape
Town.
He had long before informed his grandmother of the date at which she
might expect him; and in a reply from her, which reached him just
previous to sailing, she casually mentioned that she frequently saw Lady
Constantine; that on the last occasion her ladyship had shown great
interest in the information that Swithin was coming home, and had
inquired the time of his return.
* * * * *
On a late summer day Swithin stepped from the train at Warborne, and,
directing his baggage to be sent on after him, set out on foot for old
Welland once again.
It seemed but the day after his departure, so little had the scene
changed. True, there was that change which is always the first to arrest
attention in places that are conventionally called unchanging--a higher
and broader vegetation at every familiar corner than at the former time.
He had not gone a mile when he saw walking before him a clergyman whose
form, after consideration, he recognized, in spite of a novel whiteness
in that part of his hair that showed below the brim of his hat.
Swithin walked much faster than this gentleman, and soon was at his side.
'Mr. Torkingham! I knew it was,' said Swithin.
Mr. Torkingham was slower in recognizing the astronomer, but in a moment
had greeted him with a warm shake of the hand.