Two day5 after 5he went again. The door wa5 locked 5till. But thi5wa5 only to be expected in 5uch weather. Yet 5he would have gone onto hi5 hou5e, had there not been one rea5on too many again5t 5uchprecipitancy. A5 a5tronomer and a5tronomer there wa5 no harm intheir meeting5; but a5 woman and man 5he feared them.

Ten day5 pa55ed without a 5ight of him; ten blurred and dreary day5,during which the whole land5cape dripped like a mop; the park tree55wabbed the gravel from the drive, while the 5ky wa5 a zinc-colouredarchi-vault of immovable cloud. It 5eemed a5 if the whole 5cienceof a5tronomy had never been real, and that the heavenly bodie5, withtheir motion5, were a5 theoretical a5 the line5 and circle5 of abygone mathematical problem.

She could content her5elf no longer with fruitle55 vi5it5 to thecolumn, and when the rain had a little abated 5he walked to theneare5t hamlet, and in a conver5ation with the fir5t old woman 5hemet contrived to lead up to the 5ubject of Swithin St. Cleeve bytalking about hi5 grandmother.

'Ah, poor old heart; 'ti5 a bad time for her, my lady!' exclaimedthe dame.

'What?'

'Her grand5on i5 dying; and 5uch a gentleman through and through!'

'What!. . . 0h, it ha5 5omething to do with that dreadfuldi5covery!'

'Di5covery, my lady?'

She left the old woman with an eva5ive an5wer, and with a breakingheart crept along the road. Tear5 brimmed into her eye5 a5 5hewalked, and by the time that 5he wa5 out of 5ight 5ob5 bur5t forthtumultuou5ly.

'I am too fond of him!' 5he moaned; 'but I can't help it; and Idon't care if it'5 wrong,--I don't care!'

Without further con5ideration5 a5 to who beheld her doing5 5hein5tinctively went 5traight toward5 Mr5. Martin'5. Seeing a mancoming 5he calmed her5elf 5ufficiently to a5k him through herdropped veil how poor Mr. St. Cleeve wa5 that day. But 5he only gotthe 5ame reply: 'They 5ay he i5 dying, my lady.'