le in the dining-room, and she can have my room to herself."
He had started this speech to Uncle Ike, who left the room abruptly in
the middle of it, and Quincy's closing words fell on Alice's ears alone.
"Why, certainly not," said Alice; "sit down, Mr. Sawyer, and we will
talk about something. Don't you think it is terrible?" As Quincy was
contemplating his fair visitor, he could hardly be expected to say "yes"
to her question. "Perhaps you enjoy it?" said she.
"I certainly do," answered Quincy, throwing his whole heart into his
eyes.
"Well, I must differ with you," said Alice. "I never did like snow."
"Oh, you were talking about the weather!" remarked Quincy.
"Why, yes," said Alice. "What else did you think I was talking about?"
Quincy, cool and self-possessed as he invariably was, was a trifle
embarrassed.
Turning to Alice he said, "I see, Miss Pettengill, that I must make you
a frank statement in order that you may retain your respect for me. I
know you will pardon me for not hearing what you said, and for what I am
about to say; but the fact is, I was wondering whether you have had the
best advice and assistance that the medical science of to-day can afford
you as regards your eyes."
"It is very kind of you, Mr. Sawyer, to think of me, and my trouble, and
I will answer you in the same friendly way in which you have spoken. I
was taken sick one morning just as I was eating my breakfast I never
felt better in my life than I did that morning, but the pain in my side
was so intense, so agonizing, that by the time I reached my room and
threw myself on the bed, physically I was a complete wreck. A doctor was
called at once and he remained with me from eight o'clock until noon
before I became comfortable. I thought I was going to get better right
off, or I should have written to 'Zekiel. Two other attacks, each more
severe than the one preceding, followed the first, and I was so sick
that writing, or telling any one else what to write, or where to write,
was impossible. Then I began slowly to recover, but I was very weak and
what made me feel worse than ever was the fact that the trouble with my
eyes, which before my illness I had attributed to nearsightedness, was
now so marked that I could not see across the room. I could not even see
to turn a spoonful of medicine from a bottle on the table beside my bed.
The Pettengills, Mr. Sawyer, are a self-reliant race, and I concluded in
my own mind that the tro
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