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
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