In the few minutes that they had been up on the roof, the big lamps around the walls of the dining room had been lit and trimmed. On a low table a few feet from Darwin, loaded dishes had magically appeared. There were plates of boiled prawns, vinegared mussels and whelks, and hot sausage rolls, as well as a cold rhubarb tart, jugs of fresh milk, and a flagon of apple wine. Before Darwin could take a step in that direction, a cloaked figure entered through the door at the far end.
Solborne shot Darwin a look that said “Not a minute to spare!” and stood waiting. Helen Solborne sauntered toward them, eyeing Darwin with as much curiosity and interest as he regarded her.
He decided in the first moment of inspection that both Thomas Solborne and Jacob Pole were right. She was tiny, five feet at most, with skin so fine and pale that the lamplight seemed to shine right through her skull. Although her figure was swathed in a long cloak, it was clear from her face that she was thinner than fashion demanded. She blinked constantly as though the oil lamps were too bright, and dark shadows limned her blue eyes.
But those eyes were fiercely intelligent, and the jaw firm. She looked Darwin right in the eye, and the little curtsey she offered seemed like a private joke between the two of them.
“It is a great pleasure to meet you, Dr. Darwin. If even as many as one fourth of Colonel Pole’s stories about you are true, I await dinner tonight more eagerly than I can say.”
Darwin folded his hands across his belly and bowed in return. “I am no more than a provincial physician, with most of my life taken up by the common round of routine medical treatment. Extravagant advance billing of an entertainment, Miss Solborne, is perhaps the surest way of ensuring high disappointment.”
“And extravagant modesty is perhaps the surest sign of high self-esteem.” She smiled, to reveal white teeth with a slight overbite. “My anticipation is undiminished. If you will excuse me, I must change now or be late for dinner.”
As she drifted away through the door to the south tower, Solborne could not wait a moment longer.
“Well? What can you tell me?”
“I can tell you that I fully understand why the would-be suitors flock around Helen. Your sister is a most attractive woman.”
“I mean about her health.”
“My remark was not irrelevant to that issue. Sickness, true and serious sickness, is inconsistent with normal animal attraction. At some level, by smell or the natural language of the body, we respond to another’s state of health. However, you desire a more formal diagnosis. I am willing to provide one, although I have had no more than an opportunity for superficial observation of your sister.”
“And?”
“She appears in good health. Her gait, her posture, her willingness to indulge in badinage—yes, even her cheekiness toward me—all deny major disease.”
“But you never saw her before. I assure you, she is different than she was three months ago.”
“I believe you. And on that subject I am not bereft of ideas. However, I need proof. Did you invite Professor Riker this evening, as I requested?”
“Naturally. I walked down to his house this morning and told him that, as a noted inventor from the Midlands, you would be devastated were you to visit Dorset and depart without an opportunity to see the famous calculating engine at work.”
“Was there hesitation on his part?”
“Not the slightest. He told me that he will be very busy for the next two weeks, exhibiting the engine, but at the moment he has time to breathe. He will be delighted to come here tonight after dinner, when he will show you the machine at work and allow you to propound your own mathematical questions. We can expect him, and his machine, within the hour. I freely admit to you, I do not share his delight at the prospect of his visiting Newlands. I am still convinced that he is doing my sister some terrible harm.”
“Whatever harm is being done here, I am not yet ready to blame Professor Riker.”
“Harm? Harm?” Jacob Pole, bustling in with his fingers and the tip of his nose a rosy pink, headed for the fireplace. He lifted the tail of his long coat, allowing the warmth from the blazing logs to irradiate his buttocks and the backs of his legs. “Welcome to Dorset, ’Rasmus. It’s a raw and foggy night out there. I’ll tell you one thing, if anyone comes to harm from all this it will be me. Tom can vouch for it, I’ve been out in all hours and all weathers, chilblains on my fingers and now scorch marks on my backside. I’m glad to be in for the night.”
Darwin glanced at Thomas Solborne and sat down at the side table for a predinner snack. It did not seem like the best moment to mention that Jacob, if Darwin’s plans held good, was likely to be outside again before the evening was out.
The calculating engine corresponded exactly to Helen Solborne’s drawing. Riker had requested that the demonstration begin as soon as possible after dinner, “Since I have business tonight in Abbotsbury that cannot easily be delayed.”
Two of the male staff of Newlands had carried the heavy rectangular box into one end of the dining room, grunting with effort, while Anton Riker hovered over them and told them twenty times that the engine must not under any circumstances be dropped.
Once the machine was in position, Riker called his audience’s attention to the main features. The top, two feet wide and three feet deep, was of smooth hardwood coated with black lacquer. Two separate sets of nine levers were hinged at the upper surface. One additional lever allowed the operator to define the desired operation. All the levers projected upwards to form handles, and also continued below the surface, where their articulated brass rods were visible through the transparent glass sides of the engine. Riker demonstrated the action, moving a lever to one of its ten possible settings. As he did so the corresponding brass arm, jointed in two places, pushed into the opaque base of the engine. The base was roughly one foot deep, and each arm penetrated smoothly into its own separate slit in its upper surface.
There was one more slit in the base of the engine. It was very narrow and about two inches wide, no more than six inches from the ground, and it held a strip of cardboard or stiff paper.
The operator stood, or sat on a low stool in front of the machine.
“For example, take this problem,” Riker said, after he had pointed out the different settings. He set the right hand lever of the upper set to the digit 2, and the right hand lever of the lower set to the digit 3. Finally he moved the operations lever to the setting that indicated multiplication. The actions of his skeletally thin fingers were deft and precise, and he hardly seemed to look at what he was doing. After a pause of about twenty seconds, long enough for his audience to become restive, there was a clicking noise from the engine’s base. The strip of cardboard advanced in its position from the side slot. Riker tore it off and held it out to the audience.
Jacob Pole took the stiff paper and stared at the single printed digit. “Six,” he said. “Two times three. Hmph.”
“Not impressed?” Riker raised dark eyebrows. “I agree. We could all do as well, could we not? But come here, please, and sit down.”
Pole, somewhat reluctantly, was installed on the stool.
“Now, enter a number with these.” Riker touched the upper row of levers. “Any number that you like, up to nine figures.”
The colonel, after a moment’s thought, moved the levers to indicate 4-3-2-1.
“Very good. And now, a number with the lower levers.”
“One-two-three-four. Is that all right?”