Two on a Tower - Thomas Hardy

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do. I have come to you because I think you will do. This is it: my husband has led me and all the world to believe that he is in Africa, hunting lions. I have had a mysterious letter informing me that he has been seen in London, in very peculiar circumstances. The truth of this I want ascertained. Will you go on the journey?'

      'Personally, I would go to the end of the world for you, Lady Constantine; but—'

      'No buts!'

      'How can I leave?'

      'Why not?'

      'I am preparing a work on variable stars. There is one of these which I have exceptionally observed for several months, and on this my great theory is mainly based. It has been hitherto called irregular; but I have detected a periodicity in its so-called irregularities which, if proved, would add some very valuable facts to those known on this subject, one of the most interesting, perplexing, and suggestive in the whole field of astronomy. Now, to clinch my theory, there should be a sudden variation this week,—or at latest next week,—and I have to watch every night not to let it pass. You see my reason for declining, Lady Constantine.'

      'Young men are always so selfish!' she said.

      'It might ruin the whole of my year's labour if I leave now!' returned the youth, greatly hurt. 'Could you not wait a fortnight longer?'

      'No,—no. Don't think that I have asked you, pray. I have no wish to inconvenience you.'

      'Lady Constantine, don't be angry with me! Will you do this,—watch the star for me while I am gone? If you are prepared to do it effectually, I will go.'

      'Will it be much trouble?'

      'It will be some trouble. You would have to come here every clear evening about nine. If the sky were not clear, then you would have to come at four in the morning, should the clouds have dispersed.'

      'Could not the telescope be brought to my house?'

      Swithin shook his head.

      'Perhaps you did not observe its real size,—that it was fixed to a frame-work? I could not afford to buy an equatorial, and I have been obliged to rig up an apparatus of my own devising, so as to make it in some measure answer the purpose of an equatorial. It could be moved, but I would rather not touch it.'

      'Well, I'll go to the telescope,' she went on, with an emphasis that was not wholly playful. 'You are the most ungallant youth I ever met with; but I suppose I must set that down to science. Yes, I'll go to the tower at nine every night.'

      'And alone? I should prefer to keep my pursuits there unknown.'

      'And alone,' she answered, quite overborne by his inflexibility.

      'You will not miss the morning observation, if it should be necessary?'

      'I have given my word.'

      'And I give mine. I suppose I ought not to have been so exacting!' He spoke with that sudden emotional sense of his own insignificance which made these alternations of mood possible. 'I will go anywhere—do anything for you—this moment—to-morrow or at any time. But you must return with me to the tower, and let me show you the observing process.'

      They retraced their steps, the tender hoar-frost taking the imprint of their feet, while two stars in the Twins looked down upon their two persons through the trees, as if those two persons could bear some sort of comparison with them. On the tower the instructions were given. When all was over, and he was again conducting her to the Great House she said—

      'When can you start?'

      'Now,' said Swithin.

      'So much the better. You shall go up by the night mail.'

      V

      On the third morning after the young man's departure Lady Constantine opened the post-bag anxiously. Though she had risen before four o'clock, and crossed to the tower through the gray half-light when every blade and twig were furred with rime, she felt no languor. Expectation could banish at cock-crow the eye-heaviness which apathy had been unable to disperse all the day long.

      There was, as she had hoped, a letter from Swithin St. Cleeve.

      'Dear Lady Constantine,—I have quite succeeded in my mission, and shall return to-morrow at 10 p.m. I hope you have not failed in the observations. Watching the star through an opera-glass Sunday night, I fancied some change had taken place, but I could not make myself sure. Your memoranda for that night I await with impatience. Please don't neglect to write down at the moment, all remarkable appearances both as to colour and intensity; and be very exact as to time, which correct in the way I showed you.—I am, dear Lady Constantine, yours most faithfully,

      Swithin St. Cleeve.'

      Not another word in the letter about his errand; his mind ran on nothing but this astronomical subject. He had succeeded in his mission, and yet he did not even say yes or no to the great question,—whether or not her husband was masquerading in London at the address she had given.

      'Was ever anything so provoking!' she cried.

      However, the time was not long to wait. His way homeward would lie within a stone's-throw of the manor-house, and though for certain reasons she had forbidden him to call at the late hour of his arrival, she could easily intercept him in the avenue. At twenty minutes past ten she went out into the drive, and stood in the dark. Seven minutes later she heard his footstep, and saw his outline in the slit of light between the avenue-trees. He had a valise in one hand, a great-coat on his arm, and under his arm a parcel which seemed to be very precious, from the manner in which he held it.

      'Lady Constantine?' he asked softly.

      'Yes,' she said, in her excitement holding out both her hands, though he had plainly not expected her to offer one.

      'Did you watch the star?'

      'I'll tell you everything in detail; but, pray, your errand first!'

      'Yes, it's all right. Did you watch every night, not missing one?'

      'I forgot to go—twice,' she murmured contritely.

      'Oh, Lady Constantine!' he cried in dismay. 'How could you serve me so! what shall I do?'

      'Please forgive me! Indeed, I could not help it. I had watched and watched, and nothing happened; and somehow my vigilance relaxed when I found nothing was likely to take place in the star.'

      'But the very circumstance of it not having happened, made it all the more likely every day.'

      'Have you—seen—' she began imploringly.

      Swithin sighed, lowered his thoughts to sublunary things, and told briefly the story of his journey. Sir Blount Constantine was not in London at the address which had been anonymously sent her. It was a mistake of identity. The person who had been seen there Swithin had sought out. He resembled Sir Blount strongly; but he was a stranger.

      'How can I reward you!' she exclaimed, when he had done.

      'In no way but by giving me your good wishes in what I am going to tell you on my own account.' He spoke in tones of mysterious exultation. 'This parcel is going to make my fame!'

      'What is it?'

      'A huge object-glass for the great telescope I am so busy about! Such a magnificent aid to science has never entered this county before, you may depend.'

      He produced from under his arm the carefully cuddled-up package, which was in shape a round flat disk, like a dinner-plate, tied in paper.

      Proceeding to explain his plans to her more fully, he walked with her towards the door by which she had emerged. It was a little side wicket through a wall dividing the open park from the garden terraces. Here for a moment he placed his valise and parcel on the coping of the stone balustrade, till he had bidden her farewell. Then he turned, and in laying hold of his bag by the dim light pushed the parcel over the parapet. It fell smash upon the paved walk ten or a dozen feet beneath.

      'Oh, good heavens!' he cried in anguish.

      'What?'

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