that all the noblest of
the man cries out: 'This is the One Woman!' then I say, so truly is he
her mate, that he cannot fail to be the One Man; only he must have the
confidence required to prove it to her. On him it bursts, as a
revelation; on her it dawns slowly, as the breaking of the day."

"Oh, my God," murmured Garth brokenly, "it was just that! The Garden of
Eden, soul to soul, with no reservations, nothing to fear, nothing to
hide. I realised her my WIFE, and called her so. And the next morning
she called ME 'a mere boy,' whom she could not for a moment think of
marrying. So what becomes of your fool theory, Brand?"

"Confirmed," replied the doctor quietly. "Eve, afraid of the immensity
of her bliss, doubtful of herself, fearful of coming short of the
marvel of his ideal of her, fleeing from Adam, to hide among the trees
of the garden. Don't talk about fool theories, my boy. The fool-fact
was Adam, if he did not start in prompt pursuit."

Garth sat forward, his hands clutching the arms of his chair. That
quiet, level voice was awakening doubts as to his view of the
situation, the first he had had since the moment of turning and walking
down the Shenstone village church three years ago. His face was livid,
and as the firelight played upon it the doctor saw beads of
perspiration gleam on his forehead.

"Oh, Brand," he said, "I am blind. Be merciful. Things mean so terribly
much in the dark."

The doctor considered. Could his nurses and students have seen the look
on his face at that moment, they would have said that he was performing
a most critical and delicate operation, in which a slip of the scalpel
might mean death to the patient. They would have been right; for the
whole future of two people hung in the balance; depending, in this
crisis, upon the doctor's firmness and yet delicacy of touch. This
strained white face in the firelight, with its beads of mental agony
and its appealing "I am blind," had not entered into the doctor's
calculations. It was a view of "the other man" upon which he could not
look unmoved. But the thought of that patient figure with bandaged eyes
sitting upstairs in suspense, stretching dear helpless hands to him,
steadied the doctor's nerve. He looked into the fire.

"You may be blind, Dalmain, but I do not want you to be a fool," said
the doctor quietly.

"Am I--was I--a fool?" asked Garth.

"How can I judge?" replied the doctor. "Give me a clear account of the
circumstance