"Well, the doctor kind of thought you'd find it pretty hard to be much of a Christian at Oaklands; but Mr. Bowen said, not any harder than them folks what had their heads cut off and were burnt for their religion."

"Not any harder," I said, more to myself than to Mrs. Blake, but ah! how hard it might be, only G.o.d could know.

"But we must plan about Mr. Bowen. Will it cost very, very much?"

"My, no; he's got a good suit of clothes, and that's the most that's wanted. His fare from here to New York and back 'll be the heft of the expense."

"If that is all, he shall go to-morrow. I have more than enough money on hand for that, and a good deal of incidental expense beside."

"I reckon he'll pay you all back; for he was a prime book-keeper before he lost his eyesight. He's a good scholar, too, and got a first-rate salary."

"Then he will leave me deeper in debt than ever."

"What for?" she asked curiously.

"Many things--his prayers most of all. Lessons of patience and faith, too, that money never could buy."

She remained silent until we reached Mrs. Lark.u.m's. We found the doctor there. He was an old acquaintance. I had met him at a good many evening parties, and at a garden-party or two, where he had several times been my partner in lawn tennis, and an excellent partner I had found him, making up for any lack of skill on my part.

His greeting was exceedingly cordial, and in a blunt way he plunged right into the business in hand. "We are very glad to see you; we have some grave advice to ask."

"I feel quite elated at making one in a medical consultation," I said with a smile.

"I am not sure if you have not done more to restore health in this house than I. The world is too slow recognizing other healers than those embraced by the medical faculties."

"It's my opinion doctors knows less than one thinks of folks' insides.

They're as apt to make mistakes about people dying or getting well as any of us. I don't put near as much faith in 'em as the common run of folks,"

Mrs. Blake said with delicious candor.

"Really, I thought you had a better opinion of us as a profession than that. If you get sick, you will of course dispense with our services."

Mrs. Blake looked perplexed, but after a moment's hesitation she said:

"If I was sick I'd want to see a doctor just as much as anybody. Their medicine is all right; for G.o.d made that. It's their judgment that's so onreliable."

"And who is to blame for their judgment?" the doctor asked mischievously.

She hesitated, but her mother wit soon extricated her from the difficulty.

"There's lots of folks doing what the Lord didn't intend them to do--doctors as well as others."

"Well done, Mrs. Blake, I will retire from the field before I am annihilated altogether."

"You needn't be in a hurry to go. We'd like to get this business settled first," Mrs. Blake said, a trifle anxiously, misunderstanding the doctor's meaning. He threw me a meaning glance, and afterward whispered,--"That woman is a diamond in the rough. Given a fair start in life, she would have found a proper sphere in almost any calling."

"I believe she would. She has done more for me than any other single individual."

"She!" he asked with keen surprise.

"Yes, she wakened me from selfish ease to see the sufferings of others, and to realize my sisterhood to them."

"Yes, but you must first have had a heart to be touched, or all the Mrs.

Blakes on this planet could not have wakened it."

"Even allowing your words to be true, does it not show power amounting very nearly to genius to be able to arouse another to a painful duty, and help them to take hold of it--I won't say, manfully?"

"No, a better word is needed in this case. Woman's fine sympathy and instinct are too perfect to be called after any masculine term wholly human."

"You can pay nice compliments," I said, laughing. He bowed his head gravely--a very fine and shapely head I noticed it was too, set well on a neck and shoulders that betokened the trained athlete.

"Now, doctor, Miss Selwyn can't generally stay loitering very long among us Mill Roaders, and p'raps we'd better get our business done up right away. Anyway if Mr. Bowen is anything like me, he's getting fidgetty by this time to know if he's likely to get to them big city doctors."

"I have grown too intimate with patience to be so easily disturbed," he said, gently.

"You would like to get your sight?" I questioned. He spoke so calmly, the thought occurred he might have grown to love the hush of darkness. His face flushed. I never knew before or since a person of his years who colored so easily.

"Only G.o.d can know how I have longed to see the light, and the face of my fellow man; but I had no hope until Death opened my eyes."

His voice trembled with emotion.

"What a privilege to give that man his sight," I murmured to the doctor.

"The privilege belongs to you, I believe."

"Oh, no indeed. I was thinking of the skill of your profession. It seems almost G.o.d-like."

"We do our work mainly for money. In this case I am told you supply that."

Mrs. Blake was waiting impatiently.

"What is to be done? Can Mr. Bowen go immediately?" I asked.

"To-morrow, if he is ready. I have already written to the doctor who will take charge of his case. He is famous for diseases of the eye, especially cataract, which is the trouble here."

"He will need some one to accompany him?" I asked anxiously. "This seemed the chief difficulty now."

"Not necessarily. The conductor is a kind-hearted fellow, and would see to him. But a friend of mine is going to-morrow, and he will not leave him until he sees him safe in the hospital."

"Could he be ready so soon?" I turned with my question to Mrs. Blake.

"I've got everything ready only just to pack in a valise--fine shirts and all, we've sat up till after midnight making fine shirts and things, me and two other women."

"And you dare to say after that that it is I who must have the credit of this?" I turned a look of reproach on the doctor, as I spoke the words so low, only he could hear them.

"Am I really going to-morrow?"--Mr. Bowen asked, his face turning deathly pale,--"possibly to come back to see all your faces? Miss Selwyn, I hope you will look to me as I have always pictured you."

"I think she will not disappoint your expectations," the doctor said, gallantly.