The dog first attracted his attention; then he heard her, and turned

round. She had never seen him looking so despondent.

'You have never called, though I invited you,' said Lady Constantine.

'My great telescope won't work!' he replied lugubriously.

'I am sorry for that. So it has made you quite forget me?' 'Ah, yes; you wrote me a very kind letter, which I ought to have answered. Well, I _did_ forget, Lady Constantine. My new telescope

won't work, and I don't know what to do about it at all!' 'Can I assist you any further?' 'No, I fear not. Besides, you have assisted me already.' 'What would really help you out of all your difficulties? Something would, surely?' He shook his head.

'There must be some solution to them?' 'O yes,' he replied, with a hypothetical gaze into the stream; '_some_ solution of course--an equatorial, for instance.' 'What's that?' 'Briefly, an impossibility. It is a splendid instrument, with an object lens of, say, eight or nine inches aperture, mounted with its axis

parallel to the earth's axis, and fitted up with graduated circles for denoting right ascensions and declinations; besides having special eye- pieces, a finder, and all sorts of appliances--clock-work to make the telescope follow the motion in right ascension--I cannot tell you half

the conveniences. Ah, an equatorial is a thing indeed!' 'An equatorial is the one instrument required to make you quite happy?' 'Well, yes.' 'I'll see what I can do.' 'But, Lady Constantine,' cried the amazed astronomer, 'an equatorial such as I describe costs as much as two grand pianos!' She was rather staggered at this news; but she rallied gallantly, and

said, 'Never mind. I'll make inquiries.' 'But it could not be put on the tower without people seeing it! It would have to be fixed to the masonry. And there must be a dome of some kind

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to keep off the rain. A tarpaulin might do.' Lady Constantine reflected. 'It would be a great business, I see,' she said. 'Though as far as the fixing and roofing go, I would of course

consent to your doing what you liked with the old column. My workmen

could fix it, could they not?' 'O yes. But what would Sir Blount say, if he came home and saw the

goings on?' Lady Constantine turned aside to hide a sudden displacement of blood from

her cheek. 'Ah--my husband!' she whispered. . . . 'I am just now going

to church,' she added in a repressed and hurried tone. 'I will think of

this matter.' In church it was with Lady Constantine as with the Lord Angelo of Vienna

in a similar situation--Heaven had her empty words only, and her

invention heard not her tongue. She soon recovered from the momentary

consternation into which she had fallen at Swithin's abrupt query. The

possibility of that young astronomer becoming a renowned scientist by her

aid was a thought which gave her secret pleasure. The course of

rendering him instant material help began to have a great fascination for

her; it was a new and unexpected channel for her cribbed and confined

emotions. With experiences so much wider than his, Lady Constantine saw

that the chances were perhaps a million to one against Swithin St.




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