Work Text:
Charlotte sat in her parlor doing some needlework, when she heard a wagon pull up to their garden gate. No one was supposed to be visiting at this hour, and her husband was supposed to be visiting Lady Catherine the entire afternoon.
“My dear, excellent news!” she heard him call from the front door.
She immediately set down her needlework and went to greet him.
“What is it?”
“Lady Catherine has acquired a new set of globes,” he said.
“I’m very happy for her,” Charlotte replied, wondering if this had to do with the wagon.
“Yes, and she has instructed me to take her old set for our humble parsonage. They will go in the study.”
“Very generous of her,” Charlotte commented, watching some workmen unloading from the wagon.
“One of them, naturally, shows the earth, at least, that which we knew of fifty years ago when she first acquired it, and the other is of the celestial heavens, or space, as Milton would call it.”
“I see. Will we need to rearrange your study for these?” Charlotte asked.
“Well, that is the best part,” her husband began. “Because the one can nest inside of the other. The celestial one can go on the outside. You might call it the outer space, I suppose. Lady Catherine found that a very apt description for it.”
“She has excellent taste, indeed.”