rom love, no doubt! Then I heard
you say:--'How do you know it's Miss Scatcherd?' And I told you."

"Yes--yes--yes--yes! But how _did_ you?... How much did you see?" The
Baronet is excited and roused.

"Quite as much as I wished. I think I mentioned that I did _not_ dote on
Miss Scatcherd." For, the moment a piece of perversity is possible, this
young man jumps at it.

"Oh, Adrian dear, don't be paradoxical and capricious when papa's so
anxious. Do say what you saw!" Thus urged by his sister, the blind man
describes the occurrence from his point of view, carefully and
conscientiously. The care and conscience are chiefly needed to limit and
circumscribe a sudden image of a lady of irreproachable demeanour
besieged by an unexpected dog. So sudden that it merely appeared as a
fact in space, without a background or a foothold. It came and went in a
flash, Adrian said, leaving him far more puzzled to account for its
disappearance than its sudden reasonless intrusion on his darkness.

As soon as the narrative ended, perversity set in. It was gratifying,
said Adrian, to listen while Hope told flattering tales, but was it not
as well to be on our guard against rash conclusions? Even a partial
restoration of eyesight was a thing to look forward to, but would not
the extent of the benefits it conferred vary according to the nature of
its own limitations? For instance, it might enable him to see everything
in a mist, without outlines; or, for that matter, upside down. That,
however, would not signify, so long as everything else was upside down.
Indeed, who could say for certain that anything ever was, or ever had
been, right side up? It all turned on which side "up" was, and on
whether there was a wrong side at all.

"All nonsense!" said Irene.

"Shut up, 'Re," said Adrian. "These things want thinking out. A limited
vision might be restricted in other ways than by mere stupid opaque fog,
and bald, insipid position in Space. Consider how much more aggravating
it would be--from the point of view of Providence--to limit the vision
to the selection of peculiar objects which would give offence to the
Taste or Religious Convictions of its owner! Suppose that Miss
Scatcherd's eyes, for instance, could only distinguish gentlemen of
Unsound opinions, and couldn't see a Curate if it was ever so! And, _per
contra_, suppose that it should only prove possible to me to receive an
image of Miss Scatcherd, or her congeners ..."

"Is that