he did not require him to
attend.

During the next day he sent Hannah with the key to Welland House, not
caring to leave the tower open. As evening advanced and the comet grew
distinct, he doubted if Lady Constantine could handle the telescope alone
with any pleasure or profit to herself. Unable, as a devotee to science,
to rest under this misgiving, he crossed the field in the furrow that he
had used ever since the corn was sown, and entered the plantation. His
unpractised mind never once guessed that her stipulations against his
coming might have existed along with a perverse hope that he would come.

On ascending he found her already there. She sat in the observing-chair:
the warm light from the west, which flowed in through the opening of the
dome, brightened her face, and her face only, her robes of sable lawn
rendering the remainder of her figure almost invisible.

'You have come!' she said with shy pleasure. 'I did not require you. But
never mind.' She extended her hand cordially to him.

Before speaking he looked at her with a great new interest in his eye. It
was the first time that he had seen her thus, and she was altered in more
than dress. A soberly-sweet expression sat on her face. It was of a
rare and peculiar shade--something that he had never seen before in
woman.

'Have you nothing to say?' she continued. 'Your footsteps were audible
to me from the very bottom, and I knew they were yours. You look almost
restored.'

'I am almost restored,' he replied, respectfully pressing her hand. 'A
reason for living arose, and I lived.'

'What reason?' she inquired, with a rapid blush.

He pointed to the rocket-like object in the western sky.

'Oh, you mean the comet. Well, you will never make a courtier! You
know, of course, what has happened to me; that I have no longer a
husband--have had none for a year and a half. Have you also heard that I
am now quite a poor woman? Tell me what you think of it.'

'I have thought very little of it since I heard that you seemed to mind
poverty but little. There is even this good in it, that I may now be
able to show you some little kindness for all those you have done me, my
dear lady.'

'Unless for economy's sake, I go and live abroad, at Dinan, Versailles,
or Boulogne.'

Swithin, who had never thought of such a contingency, was earnest in his
regrets; without, however, showing more than a sincere friend's
disappointment.

'I did not say it