h waved
and smoked in the currents of air that leaked into the dome from the
fierce wind-stream without. 'If I might take away the equatorial,
supposing it possible that I could find some suitable place for observing
in the southern hemisphere,--say, at the Cape,--I _might_ be able to
apply myself to serious work again, after the lapse of a little time. The
southern constellations offer a less exhausted field for investigation. I
wonder if I might!'

'You mean,' she answered uneasily, 'that you might apply yourself to work
when your recollection of me began to fade, and my life to become a
matter of indifference to you? . . Yes, go! No,--I cannot bear it! The
remedy is worse than the disease. I cannot let you go away!'

'Then how can you refuse the only condition on which I can stay, without
ruin to my purpose and scandal to your name? Dearest, agree to my
proposal, as you love both me and yourself!'

He waited, while the fir-trees rubbed and prodded the base of the tower,
and the wind roared around and shook it; but she could not find words to
reply.

'Would to God,' he burst out, 'that I might perish here, like Winstanley
in his lighthouse! Then the difficulty would be solved for you.'

'You are so wrong, so very wrong, in saying so!' she exclaimed
passionately. 'You may doubt my wisdom, pity my short-sightedness; but
there is one thing you do know,--that I love you dearly!'

'You do,--I know it!' he said, softened in a moment. 'But it seems such
a simple remedy for the difficulty that I cannot see how you can mind
adopting it, if you care so much for me as I do for you.'

'Should we live . . . just as we are, exactly, . . . supposing I agreed?'
she faintly inquired.

'Yes, that is my idea.'

'Quite privately, you say. How could--the marriage be quite private?'

'I would go away to London and get a license. Then you could come to me,
and return again immediately after the ceremony. I could return at
leisure and not a soul in the world would know what had taken place.
Think, dearest, with what a free conscience you could then assist me in
my efforts to plumb these deeps above us! Any feeling that you may now
have against clandestine meetings as such would then be removed, and our
hearts would be at rest.'

There was a certain scientific practicability even in his love-making,
and it here came out excellently. But she sat on with suspended breath,
her heart wildly beating, while he waited in