He sat down upon his armchair, with his short legs stuck straight out and resting upon his heels alone, his hands folded across his stomach, and his purple triple chin sunk in his elaborate, but very dusty, cravat. Wagging his head to and fro, he added, with the heavy, concluding tremolo that decorated most of his vocal efforts, "Thrice accursed. Oh-h-h-h!"
Lady Enid, who seemed to have quite recovered her self-possession, sat down by Mrs. Merillia, while the Prophet, in some confusion, offered to his grandmother the bunch of roses he had bought at Hollings"s.
"They"re a little late, grannie, I"m afraid," he said. "But I was unavoidably detained."
Mrs. Merillia glanced at him sharply.
"Detained, Hennessey! Then you found what you were seeking?"
The Prophet remembered his oath and turned scarlet.
"No, no, grannie," he murmured hastily, and looking like a criminal. "I met Lady Enid," he added.
"Where did you meet the lady, young man?" said Sir Tiglath. "Was it in the accursed avenue?"
Lady Enid shot a hasty glance of warning at the Prophet. Mrs. Merillia intercepted it, and began to form fresh ideas of that young person, whom she had formerly called sensible, but whom she now began to think of as crafty.
"Which avenue is that, Sir Tiglath?" asked the Prophet, with a rather inadequate a.s.sumption of innocence.
"The Avenue in which one beholds the perfidy darting into hidden places, young man, in which the defenders of foolish virgins are buffeted and browbeaten by counter-jumpers with craniums as big as the great nebula of Orion. The avenue named after a crumbled philanthropist, who could walk, sheeted, through the atrocious night could his sacred dust awake to the abominations that are perpetrated under the protection of his shadow. Let dragons lay it waste like the highways of Babylon."
He gathered up a crumpet, and blinked at Lady Enid, who was airily sipping her tea with a slightly detached air of calm and maidenly dignity.
"I think Sir Tiglath must be describing Shaftesbury Avenue," remarked Mrs. Merillia, rather mischievously.
"Oh, really," stammered the Prophet, "I had no idea that it was such an evil neighbourhood."
"Where is Shaftesbury Avenue?" asked Lady Enid, gently folding a fragment of thin bread and b.u.t.ter and nibbling it with her pretty mouth.
Sir Tiglath elevated his hands and rolled his eyes.
"Where partridges are to be found in January, oh-h-h-h!" was his very unexpected reply.
The Prophet started violently, and even Lady Enid looked disconcerted for a moment.
"What do you mean, Sir Tiglath?" she said, recovering herself.
She turned to Mrs. Merillia.
"I wonder what he means," she said. "He never talks sensibly unless he is in his observatory, or lecturing to the Royal Society on the "Regularity of Heavenly Bodies," or--"
"The irregularities of earthly ones," interposed Sir Tiglath. "In the accursed avenue--oh-h-h!"
"I fear, Sir Tiglath, you must be a member of the Vigilance Society,"
said Mrs. Merillia.
"Yes. He looks at the morals of the stars through his telescope," said Lady Enid. "By the way--do you, too?" she added to the Prophet, for the first time observing the instrument in the bow window.
Mrs. Merillia and Sir Tiglath exchanged a glance. An earnest expression came into the Prophet"s face.
"I confess," he said, with becoming modesty in the presence of the great master of modern astronomy, "that I do watch the heavens from that window."
"And for what purpose, young man?" rumbled Sir Tiglath, for the first time dropping his theatrical manner of an old barn-stormer, and speaking like any ordinary fogey, such as you may see at a meeting on behalf of the North Pole, or at a dinner of the Odde Volumes.
"For--for purposes of research, Sir Tiglath," answered the Prophet, with some diplomacy.
"The young man trieth to put off the old astronomer with fair words,"
bellowed Sir Tiglath. "The thief inserteth his thumb into the tail pocket of the un.o.bservant archbishop for purposes of research. The young man playeth merrily forsooth with the old astronomer."
Mrs. Merillia nodded her lace cap at him encouragingly. It was evident that there was an understanding between them. Lady Enid began to wonder what was its nature. The Prophet seemed rather disconcerted at the reception given to his not wholly artless ambiguity.
"Grannie," he said, turning to Mrs. Merillia, "you know how deeply the stars interest me."
"For their own sake, young man?" said Sir Tiglath. "Or as the accursed avenue interests the foolish virgins--for the sake of frivolity, idle curiosity, or dark doings which could not support the light even of a star of the sixth magnitude? Can you tell your admirable and revered granddam that?"
This time, underneath his preposterous manner and fantastic speech, both Lady Enid and the Prophet fancied that they could detect an element of real gravity, even perhaps a hint of weighty censure which made them both feel very young--rising two, or thereabouts.
"I was originally led to study stars, Sir Tiglath, because I had the honour to meet you and make your acquaintance," said the Prophet, valiantly.
The astronomer lapsed at once into his first manner.
"In what fair company did the old astronomer converse with the young man?" he cried. "His memory faileth him. He doteth and cannot recall the great occasion."
"It was at the Colley Cibber Club, Sir Tiglath," said the Prophet, firmly. "But we--we did not converse. You had a--a slight indisposition."
"Would you venture to imply--in the presence of your notable granddam--that one had looked upon the wine when it was red, young man?"
"You had a gla.s.s of port by you certainly, Sir Tiglath. But you also had a cold which, you gave me to understand--by signs--had affected your throat and prevented you from carrying on conversation.
"Then was it the vision of the old astronomer"s personal and starry beauty that led you, hot foot, to Venus through yonder telescope?
Oh-h-h-h!"
"I did not take observations of Venus first," answered the Prophet, with a certain proud reserve. "I began by an examination into "The Milky Way.""
Sir Tiglath impounded another crumpet.
"Go on, young man," he cried. "The old astronomer lendeth ear."
The Prophet, who felt very much like a nervous undergraduate undergoing a _viva-voce_ examination, continued,--
"I became deeply interested, strongly attracted by the--the heavenly bodies. They fascinated me. I could think of nothing else."
Lady Enid"s Scottish lips tightened almost imperceptibly.
"I could talk of nothing else," proceeded the Prophet. "Could I, grannie?"
"No, indeed, Hennessey," a.s.sented Mrs. Merillia. "All other topics were banished from discussion."