The Star-Gazers Part 24

"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 capsic.u.m, 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 pa.s.sed 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 gla.s.s 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 gla.s.s 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 gla.s.s is not sufficiently powerful. I could only distinguish two."

"Perhaps it was not the fault of your gla.s.s," said Alleyne, smiling. "A gla.s.s 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 pa.s.sing 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 gla.s.s, 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 gla.s.s. 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."