Sir John went upstairs furiously, taking three steps at a time--twice.
Then he finished that flight two at a time; walked fast up the first
half of the second flight, one step at a time; slowly up the second
half; paused on the landing, and then went deliberately along the
corridor, with its row of painted ancestors watching him from one side,
as if wondering when he was coming to join them there.
Sir John Day was a man who soon made up his mind, whether it was about
turning an arable field into pasture, or the setting of a new kind of
corn. He settled in five minutes to have steam upon the farm, and did
not ponder upon Glynne's engagement for more than ten; so that he was
able to make his plans very well in the sixty feet that he had to
traverse before he reached his brother's door, upon whose panel he gave
a tremendous thump, and then entered at once.
The major was in his shirt-sleeves, apparently turning himself into a
jack-in-the-box, for he was standing in an old bullock trunk, one which
had journeyed with him pretty well all over India; and as Sir John
entered the room sharply, and closed the door behind him, the major
started up, looking fiercely and angrily at the intruder.
"Oh, you're packing, then?" said Sir John, in the most uncompromising
tone.
"Yes, sir, I am packing," said the major, getting out of the trunk, and
slamming down the lid; "and I think, sir, that I might be permitted to
do that in peace and quietness."
"Peace? Yes, of course you may," said Sir John, sharply, "only you will
make it war."
"I was not aware," said the major, "that it was necessary for me to lock
my door--I beg your pardon--your door. And now, may I ask the object of
this intrusion? If it is to resume the quarrel, you may spare yourself
the pains."
"Indeed!" said Sir John shortly.
"Well," continued the major, "why have you come?"
"You are going, then?"
"Of course I am, sir."
"Well, I came to tell you I'm very glad of it," cried Sir John, clapping
his brother on the shoulder; and then--"I say, Jem, I wish I hadn't such
a peppery temper."
"No, no, Jack, no, no," cried the major, excitedly; "it was I who was to
blame."
"Wrong, Jem. I contradicted you--very offensively, too, and I am
confoundedly in the wrong. I didn't know it till Glynne came and pulled
me up short. I say, it's a great pity for us to quarrel, isn't it?"
"Yes," said the major, laying his hands upon his brother's shoulders,
"it is--it is, indeed, Jack, and I can't help thinking that I shall be
doing wisely in going back to my old chambers, for this projected
wedding worries me. We'll see one another more seldom, and we won't
have words together then. You see--no; stop a moment! Let me speak.
You see, I feel my old wound now and then, and it makes me irritable,
and then the climate has touched up my liver a bit. Yes, I had better
go."
"Don't be a fool, Jem," cried Sir John. "Go, indeed! Why, what the
dickens do you suppose I should do without you here? Tchah! tush! you
go! Absurd. There, get dressed, man, and come down to dinner. No:
come along down with me first, and we'll get a bottle or two out of the
number six bin. There'll just be time."
The major shook his head, as he looked at the bullock trunk and a very
much bruised and battered old portmanteau waiting to be filled.
"Now, Jem, old fellow, don't let's quarrel again," cried Sir John,
pathetically.
"No, no, certainly not, my dear Jack. No more quarrelling, but I think
this time I'll hold to my word."
"Now, my dear old fellow," cried Sir John, gripping his brother's
shoulders more tightly, and shaking him to and fro, "do be reasonable.
Look here: I've asked little Lucy Alleyne to come _sans facon_, and--"
"Is she coming?" cried the major, eagerly.
"Yes, and you can talk toadstools as long as you like."
The major seemed to be hesitating, and he looked curiously at his
brother.
"Is Alleyne coming?"
"I asked him, but he is very doubtful; perhaps he is glued to the end of
his telescope for the next twelve hours. Here, have that confounded
baggage put away."
The major looked a little more thoughtful. He was hesitating, and
thinking of Glynne, who just then tapped softly at the door.
"Come in," roared Sir John; and she entered, looked quickly from one to
the other, and then went up to her uncle, and kissed him affectionately.
"There," cried Sir John, looking half-pleased, half-annoyed; "it's
enough to make a man wish you would go, Jem."
"No, it isn't," said the major, drawing his niece closer to him.
"There, there, my dear, you were quite right. I'm a terrible old
capsicum, am I not?"
"No, uncle," said Glynne, nestling to him; "but hadn't we better forget
all this?"
"Right, my dear, right," cried Sir John. "There, come along, and let
your uncle dress for dinner. Where's Rob?"
"I think he went for a long walk, papa."
"Humph! I hope he'll be in training at last," said Sir John,
good-humouredly. "You're a lucky girl, Glynne, to have a man wanting to
make himself perfect before he marries you. You ought to go and do
likewise."
"Don't try, Glynne, my dear," said her uncle affectionately. "A perfect
woman would be a horror. You are just right as you are."
"Well, you are not, Jem," said Sir John, laughing, "so make haste, and
come down. Come along, Glynne."
He led the way, and, as he passed through the door, Glynne turned to
look back at her uncle, their eyes meeting in a peculiarly wistful,
inquiring look, that seemed to suggest a mutual desire to know the
other's thoughts.
Then the door closed, and in the most matter-of-fact way, the major
proceeded to dress for dinner as if he had never quarrelled with his
brother in his life.
When he descended, it was to find Alleyne in the drawing-room with his
sister. Glynne was entertaining them, for Sir John had, on leaving his
brother, gone down into the cellar for the special bottle of port, and,
after its selection, found so much satisfaction in the mildewy,
sawdusty, damp-smelling place that he stopped for some twenty minutes,
poking his bedroom candlestick into dark corners and archways where the
bottoms of bottles could be seen resting as they had rested for many
years past--each bin having a little history of its own, so full of
recollections that the baronet had at last to drag himself away, and
hurry up to dress.
Rolph was also late--so much so that he had encountered Sir John on the
stairs, and the party in the drawing-room had a good quarter of an
hour's chat in the twilight, before the candles were lit.
"And you think it possible that it is caused by another planet?" Glynne
was saying as the major entered the room; and he paused for a moment or
two noting the change that had come over his niece. There was an eager
look in her eyes; her face was more animated as she sat in the window
catching the last reflections of the western glow, listening the while
to Alleyne, who, with his back to the light, was talking in a low, deep
voice of some problem in his favourite pursuit.
"Yes; just as happened over Neptune. That appears to be the only
solution of the difficulty," he replied.
"Then why not direct your glass exactly at the place where you feel this
planet must be?"
Alleyne smiled as he spoke next.
"I did not explain to you," he said, "that if such a planet does exist
it must be, comparatively, very small, and so surrounded by the intense
light of the sun that no glass we have yet made would render it
visible."
"How strange!" said Glynne, thoughtfully; and her eyes vaguely wandered
over the evening sky, and then back to rest in a rapt, dreamy way upon
the quiet, absorbed face of the visitor.
"I was looking at Jupiter last night," she said, suddenly, "trying to
see his moons."
"Yes?"
"But our glass is not sufficiently powerful. I could only distinguish
two."
"Perhaps it was not the fault of your glass," said Alleyne, smiling. "A
glass of a very low power will show them. I have often watched them
through a good binocular."
"I'm afraid ours is a very bad one," said Glynne.
"No, I should be more disposed to think it a good one, Miss Day. The
reason you did not see them is this; one was eclipsed by the planet--in
other words, behind it--while the others are passing across its body,
whose brightness almost hides them--in fact, does hide them to such an
extent that they would not be seen by you."
There was a few minutes' silence here, broken at last by Glynne, as she
said in a low, thoughtful voice,--
"How much you know. How grand it must be."
Alleyne laughed softly before replying.
"How much I know!" he said, in a voice full of regret. "My dear madam,
I know just enough to see what a very little I have learned; how
pitifully small in such a science as astronomy is all that a life
devoted to its depths would be."
"For shame, Moray," cried Lucy, warmly. "You know that people say you
are very clever indeed."
"Yes," he replied, "I know what they say; but that is only their
judgment. I know how trifling are the things I have learned compared
with what there is to acquire."
"What a goose Glynne is," said the major to himself, as he stood
listening to the conversation. "Why, this man is worth a dozen Rolphs."
"But, Mr Alleyne," said Glynne, eagerly, "is it possible--could I--I
mean, should you think I was asking too much if I expressed a wish to
see something of these wonders of which you have been speaking?"
"Oh, no, Moray would show you everything he could. He's the most
unselfish, patient fellow in the world," cried Lucy.
Glynne turned from her almost impatiently to Alleyne, who said, with a
grave smile upon his face,--
"You have no brother, Miss Day. If you had, I hope you would not do all
you could, by flattery and spoiling, to make him weak and conceited."
"Indeed I don't do anything of the kind, Moray," said Lucy, indignantly;
"and now, for that, I'll tell the truth, Glynne; he's a regular bat, an
owl, a recluse, and we're obliged to drag him out into the light of day,
or he'd stop in his room till he grew mouldy, that he would. Why, he
goes in spirit right away to the moon sometimes, and it only seems as if
his body was left behind."
"What, do you mean to say he's moonstruck?" said the major, merrily, and
looking half-surprised at the quick, indignant look darted at him by
Glynne.
"I'm afraid that Lucy here is quite right," said Alleyne, smiling as he
took his sister's hand in his and patted it. "I do get so intent upon
my studies that all every-day life affairs are regularly forgotten. But
I do not work half so hard now. They fetched a doctor to me, and it is
forbidden. In fact, I have plenty of time now, and if Miss Day will pay
my my poor observatory a visit, I will show her everything that lies in
my power."
"Oh, Mr Alleyne, I should be so glad," cried Glynne eagerly, and to
Lucy's great delight. "I want to see Saturn's rings, and the seas and
continents in Mars, and the twin stars."
"Well, you needn't trouble Mr Alleyne," said Rolph, who had just
entered. "There's a fellow at Hyde Park corner, with a big glass, lets
people look through for a penny. He'd be glad enough to come down for a
half-crown or two."
"Why, how absurd, Robert," said Glynne, turning upon him
good-humouredly. "I want to see and learn about these things from
someone who is an astronomer."
"Oh," said Rolph, "do you? Well, I see no reason why you shouldn't go
and have a peep or two through Mr Alleyne's glass. I'll come with you."
"Here, I'm very sorry, Alleyne. Miss Alleyne, I don't know what sort of
a host you'll think me for being so late," cried Sir John, bustling in.
"I hope Glynne has been playing my part well."
"Admirably, Sir John," replied Alleyne. "We have been talking upon my
favourite topic, and the time soon glides by when one is engaged upon
questions regarding the planets."
"But I say, you know, Mr Alleyne," said Rolph, who, with all the
confidence of one in his own house and proprietary rights over the lady,
came and seated himself upon the elbow of the easy-chair in which Glynne
reclined, and laid his arm behind her on the back, "I want to know
what's the good of a fellow sacrificing his health, and shutting himself
up from society, for the study of these abstruse scientific matters.
'Pon my word, I can't see what difference it makes to us whether Jupiter
has got one moon, or ten moons, or a hundred. He's such a precious long
way off."
Glynne looked up at him with a good-humoured air of pain, but only to
turn back and listen to Alleyne.
"It requires study, Captain Rolph," he said thoughtfully, "and time to
appreciate the value of the results achieved in astronomy. Perhaps we
have nothing to show that is of direct utility to man, but everything in
nature is so grand--there is so much to be learned, that, for my part, I
wonder why everybody does not thirst for knowledge."
"Yes," said Glynne, thoughtfully, and below her breath.
"Oh, we all dabble in science, more or less," said Rolph, glancing at
Sir John with a look that seemed to say, "You see how I'll trot him
out." "Here's the major goes in for toadstools, and Sir John for big
muttons and portly pigs."
"And Captain Rolph for exhibitions of endurance, to prove that a man is
stronger than a horse," said the major, drily.
"Yes, and not a bad thing, either, eh, Sir John?"
"Oh, every man to his taste," said the host; "but I believe in a man
feeding himself up, and not starving himself down."
"Oilcake and turnips, eh?"
"Yes, both good things in their way, but I like the chemical components
to have taken other forms, Rob, my boy; good Highland Scots beef and
Southdown mutton."
"I hope you will be able to indulge in a good dinner, Rolph?" said the
major, looking at the young officer as if he amused him.
"Trust me for that, major," replied the young man loudly. "I'm not bad
at table."
"I thought, perhaps," said the major sarcastically, "that you might be
in training, and forbidden to eat anything but raw steak and dry
biscuit."
"Oh, dear, no," said Rolph seriously. "Quite free now, major, quite
free."
"That's a blessing," muttered Sir John, who looked annoyed and fidgety.
"Hah, dinner at last."
"Walking makes me hungry and impatient, Miss Alleyne. Come along, you
are my property. First lady."
He held out his arm, and, as Lucy laid her little hand upon it, he went
out of the drawing-room chatting merrily; and, as he did so, Rolph
leaped from his seat, and drew himself upright as if to display the
breadth of his chest and the size of his muscles.
"Glad of it," he said. "I'm sharp set. Come along, Glynne."
Alleyne gazed at them intently with a strange feeling of depression
coming over his spirit, and so lost to other surroundings that he did
not reply to the major, who came up to him, moved by a desire to be
polite to a man whom he was beginning to esteem.
Then Major Day drew back and his keen eyes brightened, for Glynne said
quietly,--
"You forget. Go on in with uncle."
"Eh?" said the young officer, looking puzzled.
"Go on in with my uncle," said Glynne quietly.
And she crossed to where Alleyne was standing, and, in the character of
hostess, laid her hand upon his arm.
"There, you're dismissed for to-night, Rolph," said the major, who could
hardly conceal his satisfaction at this trifling incident.
Then, thrusting his arm through that of the athlete, he marched him to
the dining-room, the young man's face growing dark and full of annoyance
at having to give way in this case of ordinary etiquette.
"Confound the fellow! I wish they wouldn't ask him here," he muttered.
"Mind seems to be taking the lead over muscles to-day," said the major
to himself, as he walked beside the young officer to the dining-room,
while Glynne came more slowly behind, her eyes growing deeper and very
thoughtful as she listened to Alleyne's words.
Volume 1, Chapter XIII.