'Well, I am simply upholding you in your course.'
'Yes, yes; I know it!' she cried. 'And it is my deliberately chosen
course. I wish he--Swithin St. Cleeve--would go on his travels at once,
and leave the place! Six hundred a year has been left him for travel and
study of the southern constellations; and I wish he would use it. You
might represent the advantage to him of the course if you cared to.'
Louis thought he could do no better than let Swithin know this as soon as
possible. Accordingly when St. Cleeve was writing in the hut the next
day he heard the crackle of footsteps over the fir-needles outside, and
jumped up, supposing them to be hers; but, to his disappointment, it was
her brother who appeared at the door.
'Excuse 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 very cause it was meant to subserve.
A woman like this was not to be forsaken in a hurry. He wrote two lines,
and left the note at the house with his own hand.
'THE CABIN, RINGS-HILL,
_July_ 7_th_.
'DEAREST VIVIETTE,--If you insist, I will go. But letter-writing will
not do. I must have the command from your own two lips, otherwise I
shall not stir. I am here every evening at seven. Can you come?--S.'
This note, as fate would have it, reached her hands in the single hour of
that week when she was in a mood to comply with his request, just when
moved by a reactionary emotion after dismissing Swithin. She went
upstairs to the window that had so long served purposes of this kind, and
signalled 'Yes.'
St. Cleeve soon saw the answer she had given and watched her approach
from the tower as the sunset drew on. The vivid circumstances of his
life at this date led him ever to remember the external scenes in which
they were set. It was an evening of exceptional irradiations, and the
west heaven gleamed like a foundry of all metals common and rare. The
clouds were broken into a thousand fragments, and the margin of every
fragment shone. Foreseeing the disadvantage and pain to her of
maintaining a resolve under the pressure of a meeting, he vowed not to
urge her by word or sign; to put the question plainly and calmly, and to
discuss it on a reasonable basis only, like the philosophers they assumed
themselves to be.
But this intention was scarcely adhered to in all its integrity. She
duly appeared on the edge of the field, flooded with the metallic
radiance that marked the close of this day; whereupon he quickly
descended the steps, and met her at the cabin door. They entered it
together.
As the evening grew darker and darker he listened to her reasoning, which
was precisely a repetition of that already sent him by letter, and by
degrees accepted her decision, since she would not revoke it. Time came
for them to say good-bye, and then--
'He turn'd and saw the terror in her eyes,
That yearn'd upon him, shining in such wise
As a star midway in the midnight fix'd.'
It was the misery of her own condition that showed forth, hitherto
obscured by her ardour for ameliorating his. They closed together, and
kissed each other as though the emotion of their whole year-and-half's
acquaintance had settled down upon that moment.
'I won't go away from you!' said Swithin huskily. 'Why did you propose
it for an instant?'
Thus the nearly ended interview was again prolonged, and Viviette yielded
to all the passion of her first union with him. Time, however, was
merciless, and the hour approached midnight, and she was compelled to
depart. Swithin walked with her towards the house, as he had walked many
times before, believing that all was now smooth again between them, and
caring, it must be owned, very little for his fame as an expositor of the
southern constellations just then.
When they reached the silent house he said what he had not ventured to
say before, 'Fix the day--you have decided that it is to be soon, and
that I am not to go?'
But youthful Swithin was far, very far, from being up to the fond
subtlety of Viviette this evening. 'I cannot decide here,' she said
gently, releasing herself from his arm; 'I will speak to you from the
window. Wait for me.'
She vanished; and he waited. It was a long time before the window
opened, and he was not aware that, with her customary complication of
feeling, she had knelt for some time inside the room before looking out.
'Well?' said he.
'It cannot be,' she answered. 'I cannot ruin you. But the day after you
are five-and-twenty our marriage shall be confirmed, if you choose.'
'O, my Viviette, how is this!' he cried.
'Swithin, I have not altered. But I feared for my powers, and could not
tell you whilst I stood by your side. I ought not to have given way as I
did to-night. Take the bequest, and go. You are too young--to be
fettered--I should have thought of it! Do not communicate with me for at
least a year: it is imperative. Do not tell me your plans. If we part,
we do part. I have vowed a vow not to further obstruct the course you
had decided on before you knew me and my puling ways; and by Heaven's
help I'll keep that vow. . . . Now go. These are the parting words of
your own Viviette!'
Swithin, who was stable as a giant in all that appertained to nature and
life outside humanity, was a mere pupil in domestic matters. He was
quite awed by her firmness, and looked vacantly at her for a time, till
she closed the window. Then he mechanically turned, and went, as she had
commanded.