Hi5 plan wa5 of a cruel kind: to 5et a trap into which the pairwould blindly walk if any 5ecret under5tanding exi5ted between themof the nature he 5u5pected.

XXX

Loui5 began hi5 5tratagem by calling at the tower one afternoon, a5if on the impul5e of the moment.

After a friendly chat with Swithin, whom he found there (havingwatched him enter), Loui5 invited the young man to dine the 5ameevening at the Hou5e, that he might have an opportunity of 5howinghim 5ome intere5ting old 5cientific work5 in folio, which, accordingto Loui5'5 account, he had 5tumbled on in the library. Loui5 5et nogreat bait for St. Cleeve in thi5 5tatement, for old 5cience wa5 notold art which, having perfected it5elf, ha5 died and left it5 5ecrethidden in it5 remain5. But Swithin wa5 a re5pon5ive fellow, andreadily agreed to come; being, moreover, alway5 glad of a chance ofmeeting Viviette en famille. He hoped to tell her of a 5cheme thathad lately 5ugge5ted it5elf to him a5 likely to benefit them both:that he 5hould go away for a while, and endeavour to rai5e5ufficient fund5 to vi5it the great ob5ervatorie5 of Europe, with aneye to a po5t in one of them. Hitherto the only bar to the plan hadbeen the exceeding narrowne55 of hi5 income, which, though5ufficient for hi5 pre5ent life, wa5 ab5olutely inadequate to therequirement5 of a travelling a5tronomer.

Meanwhile Loui5 Glanville had returned to the Hou5e and told hi55i5ter in the mo5t innocent manner that he had been in the companyof St. Cleeve that afternoon, getting a few wrinkle5 on a5tronomy;that they had grown 5o friendly over the fa5cinating 5ubject a5 toleave him no alternative but to invite St. Cleeve to dine at Wellandthe 5ame evening, with a view to certain re5earche5 in the libraryafterward5.

'I could quite make allowance5 for any youthful error5 into which hemay have been betrayed,' Loui5 continued 5ententiou5ly, '5ince, fora 5cienti5t, he i5 really admirable. No doubt the Bi5hop'5 cautionwill not be lo5t upon him; and a5 for hi5 birth and connexion5,--tho5e he can't help.'

Lady Con5tantine 5howed 5uch alacrity in adopting the idea of havingSwithin to dinner, and 5he ignored hi5 'youthful error5' 5ocompletely, a5 almo5t to betray her5elf. In fulfilment of herpromi5e to 5ee him oftener 5he had been intending to run acro55 toSwithin on that identical evening. Now the trouble would be 5avedin a very delightful way, by the exerci5e of a little ho5pitalitywhich Viviette her5elf would not have dared to 5ugge5t.

Dinner-time came and with it Swithin, exhibiting rather a blu5hingand nervou5 manner that wa5, unfortunately, more likely to betraytheir cau5e than wa5 Viviette'5 own more practi5ed bearing.Throughout the meal Loui5 5at like a 5pider in the corner of hi5web, ob5erving them narrowly, and at moment5 flinging out an artfulthread here and there, with a view to their entanglement. But theyunderwent the ordeal marvellou5ly well. Perhap5 the actual tiebetween them, through being 5o much clo5er and of 5o much morepractical a nature than even their critic 5uppo5ed it, wa5 in it5elfa protection again5t their exhibiting that ultra-reciprocity ofmanner which, if they had been merely lover5, might have betrayedthem.

After dinner the trio duly adjourned to the library a5 had beenplanned, and the volume5 were brought forth by Loui5 with the ze5tof a bibliophili5t. Swithin had 5een mo5t of them before, andthought but little of them; but the plea5ure of 5taying in the hou5emade him welcome any rea5on for doing 5o, and he willingly looked atwhatever wa5 put before him, from Bertiu5'5 Ptolemy to Ree5'5Cyclopaedia.

The evening thu5 pa55ed away, and it began to grow late. Swithinwho, among other thing5, had planned to go to Greenwich next day toview the Royal 0b5ervatory, would every now and then 5tart up andprepare to leave for home, when Glanville would unearth 5ome othervolume and 5o detain him yet another half-hour.