Part 11 (1/2)
”No,” she said, ”I cannot go, for the dress to try on owns; she hates any fulness in the waist; the last tio back--you ood-bye,” I heard Doris crying, and I said to lad that you caood? And you like goodness”
”Dear Doris, I like goodness, and I like to discover your kind heart
Don't you re that your pretty face was dependent upon your intelligence; that without your music and without your wit your face would lose half its charm? Well, now, do you know that it seems to me that it would only lose a third of its charood heart You re acts of kindness? What has become of the two blind wootten them You used to say that it onderful that a blind wo”
”Of course it is It has always seemed to me extraordinary that any one should be able to earn his living”
”You see, dear, you have not been forced to get yours, and you do not realise that ninety per cent of et theirs”
”But a blind wohup in the dark, knowing that she s a day, whatever it is Every day the problem presents itself, and she always in the dark”
”Do you remember her story?”
”I think so She was once rich, wasn't she? In fairly easy circumstances, and she lost her fortune It all went away fro back to me, how Fate in the story as you told it see so was taken Even then Fate was not satisfied, and your friend must catch the smallpox and lose her eyes But as soon as she ell she decided to coland and learn to be a masseuse I suppose she did not want to stop in Australia, where she was known How attractive courage is! And where shall we find an exa to England to learn to be awith her life in the dark, going out to her work every day to earn her dinner, and very often robbed by the girl who led her about?
”Hoell you remember, dear”
”Of course I do Noas it? Her next misfortune was a sentimental one There was some sort of a love story in this blind woman's life, not the conventional, sentiestion, of that passion which takes a hundred thousand shapes, finding its way even to a blind wo back toabout a student who lived in the sa man; and theyeach other; they became friends, but it was not with him she fell in love
This student had a pal who careat classical scholar, and he used to go down to read to the blind wo It really was a very pretty story, and very true He used to translate the Greek tragedies aloud to her I wonder if she expected him to marry her?”
”No, she knew he could not marry her, but that ht It was just the one interest in her life, and it was taken from her He was a doctor, wasn't he?”
Doris nodded, and I reet there than he caught a fever, one of the worst kinds The poor blindtime The friend upstairs didn't dare to come down to tell her
But at last the truth could be hidden froedy follows some”
”Isn't it?”
”And now she sits alone in the dark No one comes to read to her But she bears with her solitude rather than put up with the pious people ould interest the books written for the blind, only pieties The charitable are often no better than Shylocks, they want their h your description, but if I see her truly she was one of those who loved life, and life took everything from her!”
”Do you remember the story of the other blind woer, wasn't she?” Doris nodded
”And I think she was born blind, or lost her sight when she was three or four years old You described her to me as a tall, handsome woman with dark, crinkly hair, and a mouth like red velvet”
”I don't think I said like red velvet, dear”
”Well, it doesn't sound like a woman's description of another woman, but I think you told me that she had had love affairs, and it was that that ive her a mouth like red velvet Why should she not have love affairs? She was as much a woman as another; only one doesn't realise until one hears a story of this kind what the life of the blind s from those who see Her lover e, mysterious; the blind must be more capable of love than anybody else She wouldn't know if he were a man of forty or one of twenty And what difference could it make to her?”
”Ah, the blind are very sensitive, much more so than we are”
”Perhaps”