Hannah was the first to discover that Lady Constantine was weeping with
them; and her feelings being probably the least intense among the three
she instantly controlled herself.
'Refrain yourself, my dear woman, refrain!' she said hastily to Mrs.
Martin; 'don't ye see how it do raft my lady?' And turning to Viviette
she whispered, 'Her years be so great, your ladyship, that perhaps ye'll
excuse her for busting out afore ye? We know when the mind is dim, my
lady, there's not the manners there should be; but decayed people can't
help it, poor old soul!' 'Hannah, that will do now. Perhaps Lady Constantine would like to speak
to me alone,' said Mrs. Martin. And when Hannah had retreated Mrs.
Martin continued: 'Such a charge as she is, my lady, on account of her
great age! You'll pardon her biding here as if she were one of the
family. I put up with such things because of her long service, and we
know that years lead to childishness.' 'What are you doing? Can I help you?' Viviette asked, as Mrs. Martin, after speaking, turned to lift some large article.
'Oh, 'tis only the skeleton of a telescope that's got no works in his
inside,' said Swithin's grandmother, seizing the huge pasteboard tube
that Swithin had made, and abandoned because he could get no lenses to
suit it. 'I am going to hang it up to these hooks, and there it will
bide till he comes again.' Lady Constantine took one end, and the tube was hung up against the
whitewashed wall by strings that the old woman had tied round it.
'Here's all his equinoctial lines, and his topics of Capricorn, and I
don't know what besides,' Mrs. Martin continued, pointing to some
charcoal scratches on the wall. 'I shall never rub 'em out; no, though
'tis such untidiness as I was never brought up to, I shall never rub 'em
out.' 'Where has Swithin gone to first?' asked Viviette anxiously. 'Where does
he say you are to write to him?' 'Nowhere yet, my lady. He's gone traipsing all over Europe and America, and then to the South Pacific Ocean about this Transit of Venus that's
going to be done there. He is to write to us first--God knows when!--for
he said that if we didn't hear from him for six months we were not to be
gallied at all.' At this intelligence, so much worse than she had expected, Lady
Constantine stood mute, sank down, and would have fallen to the floor if
there had not been a chair behind her. Controlling herself by a
strenuous effort, she disguised her despair and asked vacantly: 'From
America to the South Pacific--Transit of Venus?' (Swithin's arrangement
to accompany the expedition had been made at the last moment, and
therefore she had not as yet been informed.) 'Yes, to a lone island, I believe.' 'Yes, a lone islant, my lady!' echoed Hannah, who had crept in and made
herself one of the family again, in spite of Mrs. Martin.