my invading the hermitage, St. Cleeve,' he said in his careless
way, 'but I have heard from my sister of your good fortune.'

'My good fortune?'

'Yes, in having an opportunity for roving; and with a traveller's conceit
I couldn't help coming to give you the benefit of my experience. When do
you start?'

'I have not formed any plan as yet. Indeed, I had not quite been
thinking of going.'

Louis stared.

'Not going? Then I may have been misinformed. What I have heard is that
a good uncle has kindly bequeathed you a sufficient income to make a
second Isaac Newton of you, if you only use it as he directs.'

Swithin breathed quickly, but said nothing.

'If you have not decided so to make use of it, let me implore you, as
your friend, and one nearly old enough to be your father, to decide at
once. Such a chance does not happen to a scientific youth once in a
century.'

'Thank you for your good advice--for it is good in itself, I know,' said
Swithin, in a low voice. 'But has Lady Constantine spoken of it at all?'

'She thinks as I do.'

'She has spoken to you on the subject?'

'Certainly. More than that; it is at her request--though I did not
intend to say so--that I come to speak to you about it now.'

'Frankly and plainly,' said Swithin, his voice trembling with a compound
of scientific and amatory emotion that defies definition, 'does she say
seriously that she wishes me to go?'

'She does.'

'Then go I will,' replied Swithin firmly. 'I have been fortunate enough
to interest some leading astronomers, including the Astronomer Royal; and
in a letter received this morning I learn that the use of the Cape
Observatory has been offered me for any southern observations I may wish
to make. This offer I will accept. Will you kindly let Lady Constantine
know this, since she is interested in my welfare?'

Louis promised, and when he was gone Swithin looked blankly at his own
situation, as if he could scarcely believe in its reality. Her letter to
him, then, had been deliberately written; she meant him to go.

But he was determined that none of those misunderstandings which ruin the
happiness of lovers should be allowed to operate in the present case. He
would see her, if he slept under her walls all night to do it, and would
hear the order to depart from her own lips. This unexpected stand she
was making for his interests was winning his admiration to such a degree
as to be in danger of defeating the