Two on a Tower - Page 61/147

After this there only remained to be settled between them the practical

details of the project.

These were that he should leave home in a couple of days, and take

lodgings either in the distant city of Bath or in a convenient suburb of

London, till a sufficient time should have elapsed to satisfy legal

requirements; that on a fine morning at the end of this time she should

hie away to the same place, and be met at the station by St. Cleeve,

armed with the marriage license; whence they should at once proceed to

the church fixed upon for the ceremony; returning home independently in

the course of the next two or three days.

While these tactics were under discussion the two-and-thirty winds of

heaven continued, as before, to beat about the tower, though their onsets

appeared to be somewhat lessening in force. Himself now calmed and

satisfied, Swithin, as is the wont of humanity, took serener views of

Nature's crushing mechanics without, and said, 'The wind doesn't seem

disposed to put the tragic period to our hopes and fears that I spoke of

in my momentary despair.' 'The disposition of the wind is as vicious as ever,' she answered,

looking into his face with pausing thoughts on, perhaps, other subjects

than that discussed. 'It is your mood of viewing it that has changed.

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."' And, as if flatly to stultify Swithin's assumption, a circular hurricane,

exceeding in violence any that had preceded it, seized hold upon Rings-

Hill Speer at that moment with the determination of a conscious agent.

The first sensation of a resulting catastrophe was conveyed to their

intelligence by the flapping of the candle-flame against the

lantern-glass; then the wind, which hitherto they had heard rather than

felt, rubbed past them like a fugitive. Swithin beheld around and above

him, in place of the concavity of the dome, the open heaven, with its

racing clouds, remote horizon, and intermittent gleam of stars. The dome

that had covered the tower had been whirled off bodily; and they heard it

descend crashing upon the trees.

Finding himself untouched Swithin stretched out his arms towards Lady

Constantine, whose apparel had been seized by the spinning air, nearly

lifting her off her legs. She, too, was as yet unharmed. Each held the

other for a moment, when, fearing that something further would happen,

they took shelter in the staircase.

'Dearest, what an escape!' he said, still holding her.

'What is the accident?' she asked. 'Has the whole top really gone?' 'The dome has been blown off the roof.' As soon as it was practicable he relit the extinguished lantern, and they

emerged again upon the leads, where the extent of the disaster became at

once apparent. Saving the absence of the enclosing hemisphere all

remained the same. The dome, being constructed of wood, was light by

comparison with the rest of the structure, and the wheels which allowed

it horizontal, or, as Swithin expressed it, azimuth motion, denied it a

firm hold upon the walls; so that it had been lifted off them like a

cover from a pot. The equatorial stood in the midst as it had stood

before.