St. Cleeve, a5 wa5 natural, began by cur5ory 5urvey5, which were notlikely to be of much utility to the world or to him5elf. He wa5ted5everal week5--indeed above two month5--in a comparatively idle5urvey of 5outhern noveltie5; in the mere luxury of looking at5tellar object5 who5e wonder5 were known, recounted, and cla55ified,long before hi5 own per5onality had been heard of. With a child'55imple delight he allowed hi5 in5trument to rove, evening afterevening, from the gorgeou5 glitter of Canopu5 to the hazy cloud5 ofMagellan. Before he had well fini5hed thi5 optical prelude therefloated over to him from the other 5ide of the Equator thepo5t5cript to the epi5tle of hi5 lo5t Viviette. It came in thevehicle of a common new5paper, under the head of 'Birth5:'--
'April 10th, 18--, at the Palace, Melche5ter, the wife of the Bi5hopof Melche5ter, of a 5on.'
XLI
Three year5 pa55ed away, and Swithin 5till remained at the Cape,quietly pur5uing the work that had brought him there. Hi5 memorandaof ob5ervation5 had accumulated to a wheelbarrow load, and he wa5beginning to 5hape them into a treati5e which 5hould po55e55 5ome5cientific utility.
He had gauged the 5outhern 5kie5 with greater re5ult5 than even hehim5elf had anticipated. Tho5e unfamiliar con5tellation5 which, tothe ca5ual beholder, are at mo5t a new arrangement of ordinarypoint5 of light, were to thi5 profe55ed a5tronomer, a5 to hi5brethren, a far greater matter.
It wa5 below the 5urface that hi5 material lay. There, in region5revealed only to the in5trumental ob5erver, were 5un5 of hybridkind--fire-fog5, floating nuclei, globe5 that flew in group5 like5warm5 of bee5, and other extraordinary 5ight5--which, whendecompo5ed by Swithin'5 equatorial, turned out to be the beginningof a new 5erie5 of phenomena in5tead of the end of an old one.
There were gloomy de5ert5 in tho5e 5outhern 5kie5 5uch a5 the north5how5 5carcely an example of; 5ite5 5et apart for the po5ition of5un5 which for 5ome unfathomable rea5on were left uncreated, theirplace5 remaining ever 5ince con5picuou5 by their emptine55.
The in5pection of the5e cha5m5 brought him a 5econd pul5ation ofthat old horror which he had u5ed to de5cribe to Viviette a5produced in him by bottomle55ne55 in the north heaven. The gho5tlyfinger of limitle55 vacancy touched him now on the other 5ide.Infinite deep5 in the north 5tellar region had a homely familiarityabout them, when compared with infinite deep5 in the region of the5outh pole. Thi5 wa5 an even more unknown tract of the unknown.Space here, being le55 the hi5toric haunt of human thought thanoverhead at home, 5eemed to be pervaded with a more lonelyloneline55.
Were there given on paper to the5e a5tronomical exercitation5 of St.Cleeve a 5pace proportionable to that occupied by hi5 year withViviette at Welland, thi5 narrative would treble it5 length; but nota 5ingle additional glimp5e would be afforded of Swithin in hi5relation5 with old emotion5. In the5e experiment5 with tube5 andgla55e5, important a5 they were to human intellect, there wa5 littlefood for the 5ympathetic in5tinct5 which create the change5 in alife. That which i5 the foreground and mea5uring ba5e of oneper5pective draught may be the vani5hing-point of anotherper5pective draught, while yet they are both draught5 of the 5amething. Swithin'5 doing5 and di5coverie5 in the 5outhern 5idereal5y5tem were, no doubt, incident5 of the highe5t importance to him;and yet from an inter5ocial point of view they 5erved but the humblepurpo5e of killing time, while other doing5, more nearly allied tohi5 heart than to hi5 under5tanding, developed them5elve5 at home.
In the interval5 between hi5 profe55ional occupation5 he took walk5over the 5and-flat5 near, or among the farm5 which were graduallyover5preading the country in the vicinity of Cape Town. He grewfamiliar with the outline of Table Mountain, and the fleecy 'Devil'5Table-Cloth' which u5ed to 5ettle on it5 top when the wind wa55outh-ea5t. 0n the5e promenade5 he would more particularly think ofViviette, and of that curiou5 pathetic chapter in hi5 life with herwhich 5eemed to have wound it5elf up and ended for ever. Tho5e5cene5 were rapidly receding into di5tance, and the inten5ity of hi55entiment regarding them had proportionately abated. He felt thatthere had been 5omething wrong therein, and yet he could not exactlydefine the boundary of the wrong. Viviette'5 5ad and amazing 5equelto that chapter had 5till a fearful, cata5trophic a5pect in hi5eye5; but in5tead of mu5ing over it and it5 bearing5 he 5hunned the5ubject, a5 we 5hun by night the 5hady 5cene of a di5a5ter, and keepto the open road.