‘What do you see?’ Lady Constantine asked, without ceasing to observe the comet.
‘Some of the work-folk are coming this way. I know what they are coming for,—I promised to let them look at the comet through the glass.’
‘They must not come up here,’ she said decisively.
‘They shall await your time.’
‘I have a special reason for wishing them not to see me here. If you ask why, I can tell you. They mistakenly suspect my interest to be less in astronomy than in the astronomer, and they must have no showing for such a wild notion. What can you do to keep them out?’
‘I’ll lock the door,’ said Swithin. ‘They will then think I am away.’ He ran down the staircase, and she could hear him hastily turning the key. Lady Constantine sighed.
‘What weakness, what weakness!’ she said to herself. ‘That envied power of self-control, where is it? That power of concealment which a woman should have—where? To run such risks, to come here alone,—oh, if it were known! But I was always so,—always!’
She jumped up, and followed him downstairs.
XIII
He was standing immediately inside the door at the bottom, though it was so dark she could hardly see him. The villagers were audibly talking just without.