tion, weak as it was, entered the cabin,
the vicar and Louis Glanville remaining on the threshold, not to
inconveniently crowd the limited space within.

Bishop Helmsdale looked benignantly around the apartment, and said,
'Quite a settlement in the backwoods--quite: far enough from the world to
afford the votary of science the seclusion he needs, and not so far as to
limit his resources. A hermit might apparently live here in as much
solitude as in a primeval forest.'

'His lordship has been good enough to express an interest in your
studies,' said Mr. Torkingham to St. Cleeve. 'And we have come to ask
you to let us see the observatory.'

'With great pleasure,' stammered Swithin.

'Where is the observatory?' inquired the Bishop, peering round again.

'The staircase is just outside this door,' Swithin answered. 'I am at
your lordship's service, and will show you up at once.'

'And this is your little bed, for use when you work late,' said the
Bishop.

'Yes; I am afraid it is rather untidy,' Swithin apologized.

'And here are your books,' the Bishop continued, turning to the table and
the shaded lamp. 'You take an observation at the top, I presume, and
come down here to record your observations.'

The young man explained his precise processes as well as his state of
mind would let him, and while he was doing so Mr. Torkingham and Louis
waited patiently without, looking sometimes into the night, and sometimes
through the door at the interlocutors, and listening to their scientific
converse. When all had been exhibited here below, Swithin lit his
lantern, and, inviting his visitors to follow, led the way up the column,
experiencing no small sense of relief as soon as he heard the footsteps
of all three tramping on the stairs behind him. He knew very well that,
once they were inside the spiral, Viviette was out of danger, her
knowledge of the locality enabling her to find her way with perfect
safety through the plantation, and into the park home.

At the top he uncovered his equatorial, and, for the first time at ease,
explained to them its beauties, and revealed by its help the glories of
those stars that were eligible for inspection. The Bishop spoke as
intelligently as could be expected on a topic not peculiarly his own;
but, somehow, he seemed rather more abstracted in manner now than when he
had arrived. Swithin thought that perhaps the long clamber up the
stairs, coming after a hard day's work, had t