he same roof with him, and now that she
stood face to face with him, within sound of his very breathing, with
nothing between them but the thin gray film that lay over his dear
eyes, she could not persuade herself but that he was looking at her
and seeing her. Then she began to tremble, and presently a voice
said,

"Steadily, young woman, steadily, or your candle may fall on the good
master's face."

She tried to compose herself, but could not, and when she had
recovered from her first foolish dread, there came a fear that was
not foolish--a fear of the verdict of the apothecary. Waiting for
this in those minutes that seemed to be hours, she knew that she was
on the verge of betraying herself, and however she held her breath
she could see that her bosom was heaving.

"Yes," said the apothecary, calmly, "yes, I see no reason why you
should not recover your sight."

"Thank God!" said Michael Sunlocks.

"Thank God again," said the priest.

And Greeba, who had dropped the candle to the floor at length, had to
run from the room on the instant, lest the cry of her heart should
straightway be the cry of her lips as well, "Thank God, again and
again, forever and forever."

And, being back in her own apartment, she plucked up her child into
her arms, and cried over him, and laughed over him, and whispered
strange words of delight into his ear, mad words of love, wild words
of hope.

"Yes, yes," she whispered, "he will recover his sight, and see his
little son, and know him for his own, his own, his own. Oh, yes, yes,
yes, he will know him, he will know him, for he will see his own
face, his own dear face, in little Michael's."

But next day, when the apothecary had gone, leaving lotions and drops
for use throughout a month, and promising to return at the end of it,
Greeba's new joy made way for a new terror, as she reflected that
just as Sunlocks would see little Michael if he recovered his sight,
so he would see herself. At that thought all her heart was in her
mouth again, for she told herself that if Sunlocks saw her he would
also see what deception she had practiced in that house, and would
hate her for it, and tell her, as he had told her once before, that
it came of the leaven of her old lightness that had led her on from
false-dealing to false-dealing, and so he would turn his back upon
her or drive her from him.

Then in the cruel war of her feelings she hardly knew whether to hope
that Sunlocks should rec