the sparks have flown into
them! They are burning! Oh, God!"

And with that agonizing cry she fell backward in a dead faint in the
midst of the dazed crowd.

In an instant the greatest confusion prevailed, and the shouts of
laughter were turned to sobs of wailing.

Kind hands quickly raised her and bore her to the house. We will pass
gently, dear reader, over the two weeks that followed, for Gray Gables
was buried in the deepest sorrow.

One of the most pitiful calamities that ever could have befallen a human
being had happened to beautiful, hapless Madcap Dorothy. Poor child! she
was blind!

Never again would she see the light of the golden sunshine--never again
see the green, waving grass and the budding flowerets--never see the
blue sky, with its fleecy clouds, or the heavens at night blazing with
the soft, pale light of the twinkling stars--never again look upon a
human face. But while her life lasted she would grope through a world of
darkness--blind!

The shock had been terrible to both Mrs. Kemp and Harry Kendal, and oh!
in her pitiful condition how she clung to them!

"You will not throw me off now because I am blind, Harry?" she wailed,
laying her head against his bosom and weeping as she had never before
wept in all her young life.

"No!" he said, huskily; and that promise reassured her.

She clasped her white arms around his neck and clung to him in the
abandonment of her pitiful woe.

She was wild and willful Madcap Dorothy no longer.

During the first days of her trial friends flocked to see her, but as
they grew used to the situation they dropped off, and she was left with
only the old housekeeper, and her lover, and the servants of Gray Gables
for her companions.

At first she grieved over the terrible calamity with all the bitterness
of her soul, then by degrees she became reconciled to it.

But the one great anxiety of her life was in regard to her lover. He had
promised to love her still and be true to her; but would he--would he?
The very thought alarmed her soul and became the one terror of her life.

The blind are always acute in other senses.

She felt intuitively, as the days wore on, that he was growing cold
toward her. It was pitiful to see her grasp the hands of the little maid
that had been engaged to take care of her, and hear her beg her to dress
her prettily, and to see that every curl was in place, and the lace at
her throat and sleeves fresh and white.

"Oh, Katy, do