A Successful Operation.
Robert came home, anxious and perturbed. For the first time since his return from their honeymoon he crossed the threshold of the tiny house without a grateful sense of blessedness.
"What is it, Robert?" panted Mary, her sweet lips cold from his perfunctory kiss.
"He is going blind," he said in low tones.
"Not your father!" she murmured, dazed.
"Yes, my father! I thought it was nothing, or rather I scarcely thought about it at all. The doctor at the Eye Hospital merely asked him to bring some one with him next time; naturally he came to me." There was a touch of bitterness about the final phrase.
"Oh, how terrible!" said Mary. Her pretty face looked almost wan.
"I don't see that you're called upon to distress yourself so much, dear," said Robert, a little resentfully. "He hasn't even been a friend to you."
"Oh, Robert! how can you think of all that now? If he did try to keep you from marrying a penniless, friendless girl, if he did force you to work long years for me, was it not all for the best? Now that his fortune has been swept away, where would you be without money or occupation?"
"Where would Providence be without its women-defenders?" murmured Robert. "You don't understand finance,
364
