s, poor girl."

"I saw she was weighed down," said the doctor. "I did not know it was
by family cares. Let us sit on this trunk. Can you call up the view to
mind?"

"Yes," replied Garth; "I know it so well. But it terrifies me to find
how my mental pictures are fading; all but one."

"And that is--?" asked the doctor.

"The face of the One Woman," said Garth in his blindness.

"Ah, my dear fellow," said the doctor, "I have not forgotten my promise
to give you this morning my opinion on your story. I have been thinking
it over carefully, and have arrived at several conclusions. Shall we
sit on this fallen tree? Won't you smoke? One can talk better under the
influence of the fragrant weed."

Garth took out his cigarette case, chose a cigarette, lighted it with
care, and flung the flaming match straight on to Jane's clasped hands.

Before the doctor could spring up, Jane had smilingly flicked it off.

"What nerve!" thought Deryck, with admiration. "Ninety-nine women out
of a hundred would have said 'Ah!' and given away the show. Really, she
deserves to win."

Suddenly Garth stood up. "I think we shall do better on the other log,"
he said unexpectedly. "It is always in fuller sunshine." And he moved
towards Jane.

With a bound the doctor sprang in front of him, seized Jane with one
strong hand and drew her behind him; then guided Garth to the very spot
where she had been sitting.

"How accurately you judge distance," he remarked, backing with Jane
towards the further trunk. Then he seated himself beside Garth in the
sunshine. "Now for our talk," said the doctor, and he said it rather
breathlessly.

"Are you sure we are alone?" asked Garth. "I seem conscious of another
presence."

"My dear fellow," said the doctor, "is one ever alone in a wood?
Countless little presences surround us. Bright eyes peep down from the
branches; furry tails flick in and out of holes; things unseen move in
the dead leaves at our feet. If you seek solitude, shun the woods."

"Yes," replied Garth, "I know, and I love listening to them. I meant a
human presence. Brand, I am often so tried by the sense of an unseen
human presence near me. Do you know, I could have sworn the other day
that she--the One Woman--came silently, looked upon me in my blindness,
pitied me, as her great tender heart would do, and silently departed."

"When was that?" asked the doctor.

"A few days ago. Dr. Rob had been telling us how he came across her
in-