observed how Mrs. Dickson had walked to where the rail was broken, and
stood just beyond it, feeling from side to side, unable to realize where
it had gone. Ailleen noticed her, and ran to her assistance.

"Tony, look!" she exclaimed; and he, seeing what was the matter, also
hastened to her side.

Dickson, resenting Tony's appearance at the station, as well as the way
Ailleen behaved towards him, also hurried over.

"A horse has knocked the rail over," Ailleen exclaimed, as she took Mrs.
Dickson's arm.

"Let me help you," Tony said, as he took the other.

The blind woman stood motionless, with closely compressed lips and eyes
that stared in their sightless fixity.

"Here, I'll take her back," Dickson said abruptly, as he pushed Ailleen
aside. "Come on. What do you want mooning out here for?" he added
roughly to Mrs. Dickson, as he caught hold of her arm.

She half shuddered as he spoke and touched her, but moved forward,
leaning the more on Tony. At the steps her foot caught against the
lowest.

"Why aren't you careful?" Dickson exclaimed.

She freed her arm from his.

"Show me," she said to Tony, holding his arm tightly; and he gently led
her on to the verandah and up to the chair Ailleen moved forward for
her.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "Thank you;" and then, speaking as though
with an effort, she asked, "Who are you?"

"This is Tony Taylor--my--my friend," Ailleen said quickly.

The blind woman nodded slowly in answer, clasping her hands together in
her lap and closing her lips tightly.

"You should not have gone out in the sun with only that thin rag over
your head," Ailleen said gently to her. "You look knocked up. Shall
I----"

"No," Mrs. Dickson interrupted quickly and abruptly. "Where's Willy?"

"He's looking at that rail that is broken," Ailleen answered; and Tony,
standing by the steps, caught her eye, and forgot the anger he had felt.

"Shall I call him?" he said softly.

The blind woman's hands clutched one another convulsively, and she sat
up in her chair, rigid, with compressed lips and pale cheeks, the
staring eyes fixed in the direction whence she had heard Tony's voice.

"Tell him to go away. Tell him to go away," she said hurriedly to
Ailleen. "I want Willy. I want my boy. Where is my boy?"

Ailleen, meaning only to sign to Tony not to speak again, waved her hand
towards him as she bent over Mrs. Dickson. He, hearing the blind woman's
words, accepted the sign as a request