I look very horrible?" she would whisper, in a breath of
intense agony, over and over again a hundred times during the day. "Are
there not cruel scars on my face? Oh, God! the terrible fire burned my
eyes to their sockets--dry. Surely I must be a thing so horrible to the
sight, that people who see me turn away quickly, suppressing a cry on
their lips. Is it not so?"

"Oh, no, miss! Believe me, there is not a scar on your pretty face. Your
cheeks have lost a little of their bloom, that is all, and the white
lids gently cover your poor eyes, and the long lashes sweep your cheeks.
You look as though you were walking in your sleep."

"But tell me, Katy," sobbed Dorothy, "do you think Harry does--do you
think Harry could love me as well as before?"

"And why not, miss?" returned the little maid. "Surely, with your
affliction, he should love you doubly more than he ever did before. You
needn't fear about my not dressing you in your prettiest, Miss Dorothy.
Sure, I'm always making little bows and fancy things for your dresses,
and twining the loveliest of flowers in your pretty golden hair!"

Dorothy would smile faintly, piteously, and sigh ever so gently.

Oh, God! the pity of groping around those rooms day in and day out! What
mattered it if she sat by the open window, as she had been wont to do?
She could not see her lover strolling under the maple-trees, even though
she heard his voice and knew he was there.

She would look upon his darkly handsome face never again in this world;
and at times Dorothy's soul grew so bitter over her terrible misfortune
that she wished she could die. As for Harry Kendal, after the first
shock of intense pity over Dorothy's unhappy fate was past, he grew
morose and taciturn.

It was bad enough to wed a maiden whom he did not love with all his
heart and soul--such as he had heard it expressed in the burning,
eloquent words of authors and poets--but to go through life with a blind
woman at his side! The very thought made his soul shudder and grow sick
within him.

He dared not make any attempt to break their engagement just then, for
public sentiment was strongly with the girl; but the chains that bound
him to her began to grow very heavy.

Surely she ought not wish to hold him in thraldom now. It was irksome
for him to go where she was, to passively receive her caresses as well
as attempt to stay her burning tears, and to be obliged to assure her
over and over again, with every breath