ke to think that
love is blind as to those matters. But of all the kind women he had seen
since he had left Germany, she was the only one who had not spoken to
him of his blindness, who had made no allusion to it, and who had not
pressed on him painful, unsought sympathy. From the moment they had been
left alone for a little while in that unknown London house, where he had
first been taken, she had made him feel that he was indeed the natural
protector and helper of the woman he loved; and of the things she had
said to him, in those first moments of emotion, what had touched and
pleased him most was her artless cry, "Oh, you don't know how I have
missed you! Even quite at first I felt so miserable without you!"

It was Rose who had suggested an immediate marriage; Rose who
had--well, yes, there was no other word for it--coaxed them both into
realizing that it was the only thing to do.

Even now, on this their wedding day, they felt awkward, and yes, very
shy the one with the other. And as he sat there by her side, wearing a
rough grey suit he had often worn last winter when calling on her in the
Trellis House, her cheeks grew hot when she remembered the letter she
had written to him. Perhaps he had thought it an absurdly sentimental
letter for a woman of her age to write.

The only thing that reassured her was the fact that once, at luncheon,
he had clasped her hand under the table; but the door had opened, and
quickly he had taken his hand away, and even moved his chair a little
farther off. It was true that Howse had put the chairs very close
together.

* * * * *

Now she was telling him of all that had happened since he had gone away,
and he was listening with the eager sympathy and interest he had always
shown her, that no one else had ever shown her in the same degree, in
those days that now seemed so long ago, before the War.

So she went on, pouring it all out to him, till she came to the amazing
story of her daughter Rose, and of Jervis Blake. She described the
strange, moving little marriage ceremony; and the man sitting by her
side sought and found the soft hand which was very close to his, and
said feelingly, "That must have been very trying for _you_."

Yes, it had been trying for her, though no one had seemed to think so at
the time. But he, the speaker of these kind understanding words, had
always known how she felt, and sympathised with her.

She wished he would cal