Her Season in Bath Part 17

It is wonderful what perseverance and energy can effect! Even in the very prosaic and commonplace circ.u.mstances of a removal from Rivers Street to King Street, these qualities were conspicuous in the Herschels. Miss Herschel had worked with a will from daybreak to nightfall, and the stolid Welsh servant, Betty, had been infected with the general stir and bustle of the household.

By nine o'clock that evening Mr. Herschel was established in his observatory at the top of the house, without a single mischance happening to any of his mirrors or reflectors, and without the loss of a single instrument. It was a night when the temptation to sweep the heavens was too great to resist, and although he felt some compunction when he heard the running to and fro below-stairs, and his sister's voice raised certainly above concert-pitch in exhortations to Betty and entreaties to Alick to be sharp and quick, he had fixed one of his telescopes, and was lost in calculations and admiration at some previously unnoticed feature of the nebulae, when his brother Alex came into the room.

"We have got supper ready," he said, "and Travers is below offering help--rather late in the day--and the only help he can give now is to help to eat the double Gloucester cheese and drink the Bristol ale. But come, Will; you have had no proper meal to-day!"

"Humph! what," Mr. Herschel said, "did I say? Nineteen millions of miles, or eighteen and three-quarter millions? Yes, Alex--yes. Can I be of any a.s.sistance? How about the violins and the harpsichord? There are several lessons down for to-morrow, and Ronzini will be here about the oratorio. I ought to have gone to Bristol, but it was impossible.

There's the score of that quartette in G minor, Alex--is it safe?"

"Yes--yes. I pray you, brother, trust the sagacity of your workers, and repay them with a sc.r.a.p of grat.i.tude." Then yawning, "If you are not as tired as any tired dog, I am; and I am off to bed, such as it is, for there is only one bedstead put up--that is the four-post for you. Lina and I have decided to sleep on the floor."

"Nonsense! I shall not sleep to-night, I have too much to settle. Let good Lina take some rest for her weary limbs. And, Alex, to-morrow, we must see about the workshop in the garden and the casting for the thirty-foot reflector, for I can have no real peace of mind till that is an accomplished fact. The mirror for the thirty-foot reflector is to be cast in a mould of loam, prepared from horse dung. It will require an immense quant.i.ty; it must be pounded in a mortar; it must be sifted through a sieve."

Alex shrugged his shoulders, and made an exclamation in German which brought a laugh from his brother.

"Poor Alex, is the lowest yet most important step of the ladder distasteful to you? I will not trouble you, my boy, nor will I enlist Lina in the service against her wishes--do not fear."

"I fear no work for you, William," Alex said, "when music is concerned, you know that; but----"

"I know--I know," William Herschel said, patting his brother's shoulder; "but, remember, I make even music--yes, even music--that heaven-born gift, subservient to the better understanding of that goodly host of heaven, beyond and above all earthly consideration and mere earthly aims. But let us go to supper. We must eat to live--at any rate, young ones like you must. Come!"

The room below was not in such dire confusion as might have been expected. The harpsichord was pushed close to the wall, with a company of violin, violoncello, and double-ba.s.s cases, standing like so many sarcophagi in serried rows.

The table was spread with a clean cloth, and a large drinking-cup of delft ware, supported by three figures of little Cupids, with a bow for a handle, was full of strong ale.

A large brown loaf, and a Cheddar cheese, looked inviting; while a plate of Bath buns, with puffed shining tops, indented with a crescent of lemon-peel, showed the taste for sweet cakes which all Germans display.

"My good sister," Mr. Herschel said, "you are a wondrous housewife; we must not forget to give the mother far away a true and faithful report of your skill--eh, Alex?"

"Skill!" Caroline said. "There is not much skill required--only strength. Come, Mr. Travers, take what there is, and overlook deficiencies."

Then the legs of the mahogany chairs sc.r.a.ped on the bare boards, and the four sat down to their meal. The grace-cup was pa.s.sed round. Miss Herschel, drawing a clean napkin through the handle, with which those who took a draught wiped their lips and the edge of the cup. The conversation was bright and lively, and Leslie Travers, who was in the first joy of Griselda's acceptance of his love, thought he had never before tasted such excellent bread and cheese, or drunk such beer.

"There is a ball at Lady Westover's to-night, Travers," Alex said. "You are absenting yourself from choice, I doubt not. I absent myself from necessity."

"You could have gone, Alex; only I warned you I had no time to get up your lace-ruffles to-day; and you are so reckless with your cravats--all were crumpled and dirty."

"My dear sister, I do not complain. I heard, by-the-bye, Travers, that the voice of the a.s.sembly Room is unanimous in declaring Miss Mainwaring the reigning beauty; but----"

"But what?" Leslie asked.

"There are two or three men inclined to make too free with her name."

Leslie's brow darkened.

"I know of _one_," he said; "but, sir, if you should chance again to hear a word spoken of Miss Mainwaring, you may remind the speaker that she is my promised wife. She has, unworthy as I am, done me the honour to look favourably on my suit this very day."

"Indeed! you are a fortunate man," Alex said heartily.

"I came with the purpose, madam," Leslie said, turning to Miss Herschel, "to ask if you will, when agreeable to you, give Miss Mainwaring lessons in singing? I am," he said, colouring, "responsible for the price of the lessons, only I do not desire to let Miss Mainwaring know this."

"I must look in the book of engagements," Miss Herschel said; "we are over-full as it is. The days lost in the removal threw us back, but,"

she said, drawing a book with a marble-paper cover from her capacious pocket, "_I_ will run my eye over the lists, and try to arrange it, William."

But Mr. Herschel had left the room; he returned in a few minutes to say:

"Lina, the men will be here as soon as it is light to-morrow about the furnace; and, Lina, I shall be glad to have the micrometer lamp and the fire in my room."

"Yes, William;" and the question of singing-lessons for Griselda Mainwaring, or anyone else, was for the time forgotten.

Far into the night did that loyal-hearted sister, tired with a hard day's work, a.s.sist her brother in the arrangement of his new study--his _sanctum sanctorum_, on the top-floor of the house, made memorable in the annals of Bath and the records of the country, to which he, William Herschel, came a stranger, as the spot where his labour received the crown of success in the discovery of Ura.n.u.s.

CHAPTER XII.

DISCOVERED.

Griselda shrank from meeting Lady Betty after the stormy scene of the previous day, and Graves brought her breakfast to her own room.

"Did you send my letter, Graves?"

"Yes."

"Surely, by a safe hand?"

"I hope you don't think David's unsafe!" was the short reply.

"Graves, why _are_ you so gloomy--like the day? Oh!" she said, turning to the window, which was blurred with a driving mist of rain--"oh! there ought to be sunshine everywhere to suit me to-day."

"There's not likely to be a ray of sun to-day. Bath folks say that if the weather once sets in like this, it goes on rain, rain----"

"Well, it can't last for ever--nothing does."

"No; that's true," said Graves.

Griselda now settled herself to her breakfast with the appet.i.te of youth; and, as Graves left the room, she said:

"Bring the letter the instant it comes, Graves--the answer to _my_ letter, I mean; or perhaps Mr. Travers may come himself."

But the day wore on, and Griselda waited and watched in vain. She tried to occupy herself with her violin; she made a fair copy of her verses, and smiled as she thought, that waiting--_her_ waiting--had at last been crowned with reward.

Then she fell into dreams of her past life; the dull dreary round at Longueville Park; her uncle's long illness; her dependence for education on the library and its store of books, and the good offices of the clergyman of the little parish, who gave her lessons in Latin, and such Italian as he knew. Needlecraft and embroidery she had learned from his wife; and she was an accomplished needlewoman.

It was a haphazard education, but Griselda's natural gifts made her able to adapt it to her needs; and she was a self-cultured woman, who lived her own life apart from the frivolity of Lady Betty, to whom, as she said, she was simply an appendage.

Then there was the closing of Longueville Park till the heir returned from the Grand Tour; for, in spite of Lady Betty's wiles and effusive letters, the heir made it very evident that he did not desire her to remain at the Park till his return in a year or two, as Lady Betty fondly hoped.