cumstances would be unbearable. A wire from you will
make all clear."

"I see," said the doctor slowly. "Yes, a wire from me will undoubtedly
open a way for you to Garth Dalmain's bedside. And, arrived there, what
then?"

A smile of ineffable tenderness parted Jane's lips. The doctor saw it,
but turned away immediately. It was not for him, or for any man, to see
that look. The eyes which should have seen it were sightless evermore.

"What then, Deryck? Love will know best what then. All barriers will be
swept away, and Garth and I will be together."

The doctor's finger-tips met very exactly before he spoke again; and
when he did speak, his tone was very level and very kind.

"Ah, Jane," he said, "that is the woman's point of view. It is
certainly the simplest, and perhaps the best. But at Garth's bedside
you will be confronted with the man's point of view; and I should be
failing the trust you have placed in me did I not put that before you
now.--From the man's point of view, your own mistaken action three
years ago has placed you now in an almost impossible position. If you
go to Garth with the simple offer of your love--the treasure he asked
three years ago and failed to win--he will naturally conclude the love
now given is mainly pity; and Garth Dalmain is not the man to be
content with pity, where he has thought to win love, and failed. Nor
would he allow any woman--least of all his crown of womanhood--to tie
herself to his blindness unless he were sure such binding was her
deepest joy. And how could you expect him to believe this in face of
the fact that, when he was all a woman's heart could desire, you
refused him and sent him from you?--If, on the other hand, you explain,
as no doubt you intend to do, the reason of that refusal, he can but
say one thing: 'You could not trust me to be faithful when I had my
sight. Blind, you come to me, when it is no longer in my power to prove
my fidelity. There is no virtue in necessity. I can never feel I
possess your trust, because you come to me only when accident has put
it out of my power either to do the thing you feared, or to prove
myself better than your doubts.' My dear girl, that is how matters
stand from the man's point of view; from his, I make no doubt, even
more than from mine; for I recognise in Garth Dalmain a stronger man
than myself. Had it been I that day in the church, wanting you as he
did, I should have grovelled at your feet and promised to grow up