up melancholy
for astronomy, to the great advantage of all who came in contact with
her. One morning, when Tabitha Lark had come as usual to read, Lady
Constantine chanced to be in a quarter of the house to which she seldom
wandered; and while here she heard her maid talking confidentially to
Tabitha in the adjoining room on the curious and sudden interest which
Lady Constantine had acquired in the moon and stars.

'They do say all sorts of trumpery,' observed the handmaid. 'They
say--though 'tis little better than mischief, to be sure--that it isn't
the moon, and it isn't the stars, and it isn't the plannards, that my
lady cares for, but for the pretty lad who draws 'em down from the sky to
please her; and being a married example, and what with sin and shame
knocking at every poor maid's door afore you can say, "Hands off, my
dear," to the civilest young man, she ought to set a better pattern.'

Lady Constantine's face flamed up vividly.

'If Sir Blount were to come back all of a sudden--oh, my!'

Lady Constantine grew cold as ice.

'There's nothing in it,' said Tabitha scornfully. 'I could prove it any
day.'

'Well, I wish I had half her chance!' sighed the lady's maid. And no
more was said on the subject then.

Tabitha's remark showed that the suspicion was quite in embryo as yet.
Nevertheless, saying nothing to reveal what she had overheard,
immediately after the reading Lady Constantine flew like a bird to where
she knew that Swithin might be found.

He was in the plantation, setting up little sticks to mark where the
wooden cabin was to stand. She called him to a remote place under the
funereal trees.

'I have altered my mind,' she said. 'I can have nothing to do with this
matter.'

'Indeed?' said Swithin, surprised.

'Astronomy is not my hobby any longer. And you are not my Astronomer
Royal.'

'O Lady Constantine!' cried the youth, aghast. 'Why, the work is begun!
I thought the equatorial was ordered.'

She dropped her voice, though a Jericho shout would not have been
overheard: 'Of course astronomy is my hobby privately, and you are to be
my Astronomer Royal, and I still furnish the observatory; but not to the
outer world. There is a reason against my indulgence in such scientific
fancies openly; and the project must be arranged in this wise. The whole
enterprise is yours: you rent the tower of me: you build the cabin: you
get the equatorial. I simply give permission, since you desir