blame as
Margie . . . she'll be fearfully upset I don't know how to tell her."

"Tell you what," exclaimed the General, "I'll write to Ffolliot . . .
I'll do it now, this instant, and the letter will catch the 7.30
post . . ."

At the door he paused and added more cheerfully, "I shall enjoy writing
to Ffolliot."

CHAPTER XVIII

WHAT FOLLOWED

As General Grantly had predicted, Mrs Ffolliot was very much upset when
she heard about Ger's eyes, and was for rushing up to London herself,
there and then to interview the oculist. But Mr Ffolliot dissuaded
her. For one thing, he hated Redmarley without her even for a single
night. For another, he considered such a journey a needless expense.
This, however, he did not mention, but contented himself with the
suggestion that it would seem a reflection upon Mrs Grantly's
competence to do anything of the kind; and that consideration weighed
heavily with his wife where the other would have been brushed aside as
immaterial and irrelevant. "I can't understand it," the Squire
remarked plaintively; "I did not know there had ever been any eye
trouble in your family."

"There never has, so far as I know; but surely," and Mrs Ffolliot spoke
with something less than her usual gentle deference, "we needn't seek
far to find where Ger gets his."

"Do you mean that he inherits it from ME?"

"Well, my dear Larrie, surely _you've_ got defective sight, else why
the monocle?"

"But Ger isn't a bit like me. He is all Grantly. In character, I
sometimes think he resembles your mother, he is so fond of society; in
appearance he's very like the others, except the Kitten. Now, if the
Kitten's sight had been astigmatic . . ."

"We must take care that she doesn't suffer from neglect like poor
little Ger," Mrs Ffolliot interrupted rather bitterly. "I shall write
at once to their house-master to have the twins' eyes tested. I'll run
no more risks. We know Grantly's all right because he passed his
medical so easily. Poor, poor little Ger."

"It certainly is most unfortunate," said Mr Ffolliot.

He was really concerned about Ger, but mingled with his concern was the
feeling that the little boy had taken something of a liberty in
developing that particular form of eye trouble. It seemed an unfilial
reflection upon himself. Moreover, there was something in the
General's letter plainly stating the bare facts that he did not exactly
like. It was, he considered, "rather brusque