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Austin addressed the doctor. “Miss Moore has been very kind to me; I’m afraid she feels it her duty–“

“No! No!” cried the girl.

“She rarely misses a day, and she always brings flowers. I’m very fond of bright colors.”

Suydam cursed at the stiff formality in the man’s tone. How could any woman see past that glacial front and glimpse the big, aching heart beyond? Austin was harsh and repellent when the least bit self-conscious, and now he was striving deliberately to heighten the effect.

The physician wondered why Marmion Moore had gone even thus far in showing her gratitude, for she was not the self-sacrificing kind. As for a love match between two such opposite types, Suydam could not conceive of it. Even if the girl understood the sweet, simple nature of this man, even if she felt her own affections answer to his, Suydam believed he knew the women of her set too well to imagine that she could bring herself to marry a blind man, particularly one of no address.

“We leave for the mountains to-morrow,” Marmion said, “so I came to say good-by, for a time.”

“I–shall miss your visits,” Austin could not disguise his genuine regret, “but when you return I shall be thoroughly recovered. Perhaps we can ride again.”

“Never!” declared Miss Moore. “I shall never ride again. Think of the suffering I’ve caused you. I–I–am dreadfully sorry.”

To Suydam’s amazement, he saw the speaker’s eyes fill with tears. A doubt concerning the correctness of his surmises came over him and he rose quickly. After all, he reflected, she might see and love the real Bob as he did, and if so she might wish to be alone with him in this last hour. But Austin laughed at his friend’s muttered excuse.

“You know there’s nobody waiting for you. That’s only a pretense to find livelier company. You promised to dine with me.” To Miss Moore he explained: “He isn’t really busy; why, he has been complaining for an hour that the heat has driven all his patients to the country, and that he is dying of idleness.”

The girl’s expression altered curiously. She shrank as if wounded; she scanned the speaker’s face with startled eyes before turning with a strained smile to say:

“So, Doctor, we caught you that time. That comes from being a high-priced society physician. Why don’t you practise among the masses? I believe the poor are always in need of help.”

“I really have an engagement,” Suydam muttered.

“Then break it for Mr. Austin’s sake. He is lonely and–I must be going in a moment.”

The three talked for a time in the manner all people adopt for a sick-room, then the girl rose and said, with her palm in Austin’s hand:

“I owe you so much that I can never hope to repay you, but you–you will come to see me frequently this season. Promise! You won’t hide yourself, will you?”

The blind man smiled his thanks and spoke his farewell with meaningless politeness; then, as the physician prepared to see her to her carriage, Miss Moore said:

“No! Please stay and gossip with our invalid. It’s only a step.”

She walked quickly to the door, flashed them a smile, and was gone.

Suydam heard his patient counting as before.

“One! Two! Three–!”

At “Twenty-five” the elder man groped his way to the open bay-window and bowed at the carriage below. There came the sound of hoofs and rolling wheels, and the doctor, who had taken stand beside his friend, saw Marmion Moore turn in her seat and wave a last adieu. Austin continued to nod and smile in her direction, even after the carriage was lost to view; then he felt his way back to the arm-chair and sank limply into it.

“Gone! I–I’ll never be able to see her again.”

Suydam’s throat tightened miserably. “Could you see her at all?”

“Only her outlines; but when she comes back in the fall I’ll be as blind as a bat.” He raised an unsteady hand to his head and closed his eyes. “I can stand anything except that! To lose sight of her dear face–” The force of his emotion wrenched a groan from him.