ng to refuse, as Mary had suggested?

They were near a lamp on the suburban road which stood up in the boughs
of a lime, making a green flame of the tree. Walter Gray pulled up
suddenly and lifted his eyes to the light.

"Do you notice anything?" he asked.

Drummond peered down into the eyes. Yes, there was a slight film upon
the pupil of one.

"Cataract," said Walter Gray cheerfully. "I shall never be fit for my
work any more, even if an operation should be successful. Marcella
knows. Good girl, she has kept her own counsel. I have not been working
for some time at the watches. Mr. Gordon, kind soul, continues my
salary. I have been learning type-writing against the days that are to
come. I confess I have a desire to write a book. I have saved nothing,
Sir Robin Drummond. How is it possible, with fifty shillings a week and
eight children? I have no pride about accepting your offer. If my scrip
is empty and yours is full I don't object to receiving from a
fellow-pilgrim what I should give if our cases were reversed."

"Ah! that is right," said Robin Drummond. "As for cataract, in its early
stages it is easily curable. Sir George Osborne----"

"I will do whatever you and Mary wish. But I anticipate blindness. I
shall not mind very much if I have the light within. There will be the
book to solace my age; and after a time I shall not be so helpless."

The Dowager came round after all sooner than was expected. The
reconciliation was hastened by a letter she received from Mrs. Ilbert
congratulating her on her prospective daughter-in-law. "My poor
Maurice," she wrote. "I don't mind telling you, dear Lady Drummond, that
Maurice was head-over-ears in love with your charming and distinguished
daughter-in-law that is to be. The boy takes it very well, says that the
better man has won, which is exactly like Maurice. Since your son has
chosen a political career I congratulate him on having such a woman as
Miss Gray by his side. She will be a force in political life, so says
Maurice. And she will be the noblest inspiration. Though I am grieved
that she is to be your son's Egeria and not mine yet I offer you and Sir
Robin my heartiest congratulations. I may add that I also congratulate
the party to which your son belongs."

Lady Drummond had rubbed her eyes over this letter. Congratulate
_her_--was it possible?--on being the prospective mother-in-law of Mary
Gray, the daughter of a man who worked for his living at repairing t