ight of one eye may be gone."

"I know," said I. "She is reconciled to it. She has the courage and
resignation of a saint."

"She has also the very common and natural fears of a woman."

"For Heaven's sake," I cried, "tell me plainly what you mean."

"We don't quite know what disfigurement will result," said the nurse
bluntly. "It is certain to be very great, and the dread of your seeing
her is making her ill and retarding her recovery. So if you have any
regard for her, pack up your things and go away."

"But," I remonstrated, "I'm bound to see her sooner or later."

The nurse lost patience. "Ach! Can't you get it into your head that it
is essential it should be later, when she is strong enough to stand the
strain and has realised the worst and made her little preparations?"

I accepted the rebuke meekly. The situation, when explained, was
comprehensible to the meanest masculine intelligence.

"I will go," said I.

When I announced this determination to Lola she breathed a deep sigh of
relief.

"I shall be so much happier," she said.

Then she raised both her arms and drew my head down until our lips met.
"Dear," she whispered, still holding me, "if I hadn't run away from you
before I should run away now; but it would be silly to do it twice. So
I'll come to London as soon as the doctor will let me. But if you find
you don't and can't possibly love me I shan't feel hurt with you. I've
had some months, I know, of your love, and that will last me all my
life; and I know that whatever happens you'll be my very dear and
devoted friend."

"I shall be your lover always!" I swore.

She shook her head and released me. A great pity welled up in my heart,
for I know now why she had forbidden me to speak of marriage, and in
some dim way I got to the depth of her woman's nature. I realised,
as far as a man can, how the sudden blasting of a woman's beauty must
revolutionise not only her own attitude towards the world, but her
conception of the world's attitude towards her. Only a few weeks before
she had gone about proudly conscious of her superb magnificence. It was
the triumphant weapon in her woman's armoury, to use when she so chose.
It had illuminated a man's journey (I knew and felt it now) through the
Valley of the Shadow. It had held his senses captive. It had brought him
to her feet. It was a charm that she could always offer to his eyes.
It was her glory and her pride to enhance it for his delectation. Her