hit, and within five years 350,000 copies were sold. Several
other works appeared from Conway's pen in rapid succession,
but none of them attained the popularity of "Called Back."
Hugh Conway died at Monte Carlo on May 15, 1885.

_I.--A Blind Witness_

I was young, rich, and possessed of unusual vigour and strength. Life,
you would think, should have been very pleasant to me. I was beyond the
reach of care; I was as free as the wind to follow my own devices. But
in spite of all these advantages, I was as helpless and miserable as the
poorest toiler in the country.

For I was blind, stone blind!

The dread disease that robbed me of my sight had crept on me slowly
through the years, and now I lay in my bedroom in Walpole Street, with
my old nurse, Priscilla Drew, sleeping on an extemporised bed outside my
door to tend and care for me.

It was a stifling night in August. I could not sleep. Despair filled my
heart. I was blind, blind, blind! I should be blind for ever! So
entirely had I lost heart that I began to think I would not have
performed at all the operation which the doctors said might give me back
the use of my eyes.

Presently a sudden, fierce longing to be out of doors came over me. It
was night, very few people would be about. Old Priscilla slept soundly.
I rose from my bed, and, dressing myself with difficulty, crept,
cautious as a thief, to the street door. The street, a quiet one, was
deserted. For a time I walked backwards and forwards up the street. The
exercise filled me with a peculiar elation. By carefully counting my
footsteps, I gauged accurately the position of my house. At last, I
decided to return, and opening the door, I entered and climbed the
stairs. The atmosphere of the place struck me as strange and unfamiliar.
I felt for a bracket which should have been upon the wall, that I had
often been warned to avoid knocking with my head. It was not there. I
had entered the wrong house.

As I turned to grope my way back, I heard the murmur of voices. I made
my way in the direction of these sounds to seek for assistance.
Suddenly, there fell upon my ears the notes of a piano and a woman's
voice singing.

Music with me was an absorbing passion. I listened enthralled, placing
my ear close to the door from behind which the sound proceeded. It was a
song that few amateurs would dare to attempt, and I waited eagerly to
hear how the beautiful voice would render the finale. Bu