sh. Calder drank his brandy-and-soda, and slowly
that question forced itself more and more into the front of his mind.
Would the woman over in Ireland understand? He rose from his chair as he
heard Colonel Dawson's voice in the mess-room, and taking up his letter,
walked away to the post-office. Durrance's letter was despatched, but
somewhere in the Mediterranean it crossed a letter from Ethne, which
Durrance received a fortnight later at Cairo. It was read out to him by
Calder, who had obtained leave to come down from Wadi Halfa with his
friend. Ethne wrote that she had, during the last months, considered all
that he had said when at Glenalla and in London; she had read, too, his
letters and understood that in his thoughts of her there had been no
change, and that there would be none; she therefore went back upon her
old argument that she would, by marriage, be doing him an injury, and
she would marry him upon his return to England.

"That's rough luck, isn't it?" said Durrance, when Calder had read the
letter through. "For here's the one thing I have always wished for, and
it comes when I can no longer take it."

"I think you will find it very difficult to refuse to take it," said
Calder. "I do not know Miss Eustace, but I can hazard a guess from the
letters of hers which I have read to you. I do not think that she is a
woman who will say 'yes' one day, and then because bad times come to you
say 'no' the next, or allow you to say 'no' for her, either. I have a
sort of notion that since she cares for you and you for her, you are
doing little less than insulting her if you imagine that she cannot
marry you and still be happy."

Durrance thought over that aspect of the question, and began to wonder.
Calder might be right. Marriage with a blind man! It might, perhaps, be
possible if upon both sides there was love, and the letter from Ethne
proved--did it not?--that on both sides there _was_ love. Besides, there
were some trivial compensations which might help to make her sacrifice
less burdensome. She could still live in her own country and move in her
own home. For the Lennon house could be rebuilt and the estates cleared
of their debt.

"Besides," said Calder, "there is always a possibility of a cure."

"There is no such possibility," said Durrance, with a decision which
quite startled his companion. "You know that as well as I do;" and he
added with a laugh, "You needn't start so guiltily. I haven't overheard
a wo