Part 36 (1/2)

Sir Tiglath continued measuring and drawing lines with a very thin pen, and Lady Enid proceeded further to develop her campaign.

”Mr. Vivian tells me,” she said, ”that he has a very old and dear friend who is most anxious to make your acquaintance--not, of course, for any idle social purpose, but in order to consult you on some obscure point connected with astronomy that only you can render clear. Isn't this so, Mr. Vivian?”

The Prophet s.h.i.+fted uneasily on the astronomical instruments, and, grasping the carpet slippers with one hand to steady himself, in answer to an authoritative sign from Lady Enid, feebly nodded his head.

”But,” Lady Enid continued, apparently warming to her lies, ”Mr. Vivian and his friend, knowing how much your time is taken up by astronomical research and how intensely valuable it is to the world at large, have not hitherto dared to intrude upon it, although they have wished to do so for a very long time, and have even made one attempt--at the Colley Cibber Club.”

The Prophet gasped. Sir Tiglath took a bit out of the m.u.f.fin and returned to his tracing and measuring.

”On that occasion you may remember,” Lady Enid went on with increasing vivacity and a.s.surance, ”you declined to speak. This naturally damped Mr. Vivian--who is very sensitive, though you might not think it”--here she cast a glance at the instruments on which the Prophet sat--”and his friend. So much so, in fact, that unless I had undertaken to act for them I daresay they would have let the matter drop. Wouldn't you, Mr.

Vivian?” she added swiftly to the Prophet.

”Certainly,” he answered, like a creature in a dream. ”Certainly.”

”More especially as the friend, Mrs. Vane Bridgeman”--the Prophet at this point made an inarticulate, but very audible, noise that might have meant anything, and that did in fact mean ”Merciful Heavens! what will become of me?”--”Mrs. Vane Bridgeman is also of a very retiring disposition and would hate to put such a man as you are to the slightest inconvenience.”

Sir Tiglath took another bite at the m.u.f.fin, which seemed to be getting the worst of the _tete-a-tete_, rummaged among the mess of things that loaded his table till he found a gigantic book, opened it, and began to compare some measurements in it with those he had made on the foolscap paper. His brick-red face glistened in the light of the lamp that stood beside him. His moist red lips shone, and he seemed totally unaware that there was anyone in the chamber endeavouring to gain his attention.

”In these circ.u.mstances, Sir Tiglath,” Lady Enid went on, with pleasant ease, and a sort of homespun self-possession that trumpeted, like a military band, her sensibleness, ”Mr. Vivian consulted me as to what to do; whether to give the whole thing up, or to make an appeal to you at the risk of disturbing you and taking up a little of your precious time.

When he had explained the affair to me, however, I at once felt certain that you would wish to know of it. Didn't I, Mr. Vivian? Didn't I say, only this afternoon, that we must at once take a four-wheeler to Sir Tiglath's?”

”Yes, you did,” said the Prophet, in a m.u.f.fled voice.

”For I knew that no investigation, no serious, reverent investigation into heavenly, that is starry, conditions could be indifferent to you, Sir Tiglath.”

The astronomer, who had been in the act of lifting the last morsel of the m.u.f.fin to his mouth, put it down again, and Lady Enid, thus vehemently encouraged, went on more rapidly.

”You know of Mr. Vivian's interest, almost more than interest, in the planets. This interest is shared, was indeed prompted by Mrs. Bridgeman, a woman of serious attainments and a cultivated mind. Isn't she, Mr.

Vivian?”

The Prophet heard a voice reply, ”Oh, yes, she is.” He often wondered afterwards whether it was his own.

”It seems that she, during certain researches, hit upon an idea with regard to--well, shall I say with regard to certain stars?--which she communicated to Mr. Vivian in the hope that he would carry it further, and in fact clear it up. Didn't she, Mr. Vivian?”

”Oh, yes, she did,” said a voice, to which the Prophet again listened with strained attention.

”It was in connection with this idea that Mr. Vivian developed his enthusiasm for the telescope--which led him, perhaps, a little too far, Sir Tiglath, but I'm sure Mrs. Merillia and you have quite forgotten that!”

Here Lady Enid paused, and the astronomer achieved the final conquest of the m.u.f.fin.

”He and Mrs. Bridgeman have been, in fact, working together, she being the brain, as it were, and Mr. Vivian the eye. You've been the eye, Mr.

Vivian?”

”I've been the eye.”

”But, despite all their ardour and a.s.siduity, they have come to a sort of deadlock. In these circ.u.mstances they come to you, making me--as your, may I say intimate, friend?--their mouthpiece.”

Here Lady Enid paused rather definitely, and cast a glance of apparently violent invitation at the Prophet, as if suggesting that he must now amplify and fill in her story. As he did not do so, a heavy silence fell in the room. Sir Tiglath had returned to his measuring, and Lady Enid, for the first time, began to look slightly embarra.s.sed. Sending her eyes vaguely about the apartment, as people do on such occasions, she chanced to see a newspaper lying on the floor near to her. She bent down towards it, then raising herself up she said,--