"
"And this pleases you?" inquired the doctor, blowing smoke rings
into the air, and watching the blind face intently.
"Ah, I am so grateful for it," said Garth earnestly. "Do you know,
Brand, when you suggested sending me a lady nurse and secretary, I
felt I could not possibly stand having a woman touch me."
"So you said," commented the doctor quietly.
"No! Did I? What a bear you must have thought me."
"By no means," said the doctor, "but a distinctly unusual patient.
As a rule, men--"
"Ah, I dare say," Garth interposed half impatiently. "There was a
time when I should have liked a soft little hand about me. And I
dare say by now I should often enough have caught it and held it,
perhaps kissed it--who knows? I used to do such things, lightly
enough. But, Brand, when a man has known the touch of THE Woman, and
when that touch has become nothing but a memory; when one is dashed
into darkness, and that memory becomes one of the few things which
remain, and, remaining, brings untold comfort, can you wonder if one
fears another touch which might in any way dim that memory,
supersede it, or take away from its utter sacredness?"
"I understand," said the doctor slowly.
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