"Ah, that will be 'perpetual light!'"
* * * * * * *
When Simpson, pale with importance, flung open the library door, and
announced: "Her Grace, the Duchess of Meldrum," Jane was seated at
the piano, playing soft dreamy chords; and a slim young man, in
evening dress, advanced with eager hospitality to greet his guest.
The duchess either did not see, or chose to ignore the guiding cord.
She took his outstretched hand warmly in both her own.
"Goodness gracious, my dear Dal! How you surprise me! I expected to
find you blind! And here you are striding about, just your old
handsome self!"
"Dear Duchess," said Garth, and stooping, kissed the kind old hands
still holding his; "I cannot see you, I am sorry to say; but I don't
feel very blind to-night. My darkness has been lightened by a joy
beyond expression."
"Oh ho! So that's the way the land lies! Now which are you going to
marry? The nurse,--who, I gather, is a most respectable young
person, and highly recommended; or that hussy, Jane; who, without
the smallest compunction, orders her poor aunt from one end of the
kingdom to the other, to suit her own convenience?"
Jane came over from the piano, and slipped her hand through her
lover's arm.
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