-destruction seems a very simple thing--more
often a duty than not; but it's not to be done! It is quite
impossible not to be, when once you have been.

"If I were to let you destroy your body, as you were so bent on
doing, the strongest interest I have on earth would cease to exist.

"I love you, Barty, with a love passing the love of woman; and have
done so from the day you were born. I loved your father and mother
before you--and theirs; ca date de loin, mon pauvre ami! And
especially I love your splendid body and all that belongs to
it--brain, stomach, heart, and the rest; even your poor remaining
eye, which is worth all the eyes of Argus!

"So I have used your own pen and ink and paper, your own right hand
and brain, your own cipher, and the words that are yours, to write
you this--in English. I like English better than French.

"Listen. Monsieur Noiret is a fool; and you are a poor self-deluded
hypochondriac.

"I am convinced your right eye is safe for many years to
come--probably for the rest of your life.

"You have quite deceived yourself in fancying that the symptom you
perceived in your right eye threatens the disease which has
destroyed your left--for the sight of that, alas! is irretrievably
gone; so don't trouble about it any more. It will always be charming
to _look at_, but it will never _see_ again. Some day I will tell
you how you came to lose the use of it. I think I know.

"M. Noiret is new to the ophthalmoscope. The old humbug never saw
your right retina at all--nor your left one either, for that matter.
He only pretended, and judged entirely by what you told him; and you
didn't tell him very clearly. He's a Belgian, you know, and a
priest, and doesn't think very quick.

"_I_ saw your retina, although but with _his_ eye. There is no sign
of congestion or coming detachment whatever. That blind portion you
discovered is in _every_ eye. It is called the '_punctum coecum_.' It
is where the optic nerve enters the retina and spreads out. It is
only with one eye shut that an ordinary person can find it, for each
eye supplements this defect of the other. To-morrow morning try the
experiment on little Finche Torfs; on any one you meet. You will
find it in everybody.

"So don't trouble about either eye any more. I'm not infallible, of
course; it's on