s--talked to him till the nurse stopped it. I found we knew each
other. Met him in the Tyrol--at Meran--ten years ago. He was quite a boy
then. But he remembered me quite well. It was this morning."

"Did he recognise you, or you him?"

"Why--neither exactly. We found out about Meran by talking. No--poor
chap!--he can't recognise anybody, by sight at least. He won't do that
yet awhile."

The lady said "Oh?" in a puzzled voice, as though she heard something
for the first time; then continued: "Do you know, I have never quite
realised that ... that the eyes were so serious. I knew all along that
there was _something_, but ... but I understood it was only weakness."

"They have been keeping it dark--quite reasonably and properly, you
know--but there is it! He can't see--simply can't see. His eyes _look_
all right, but they won't work. His sister knows, of course, but he has
bound her over to secrecy. He made me promise to say nothing, and I've
broken my promise, I suppose. But--somehow--I thought you knew."

"Only that there was _something_--no idea that he was blind. But I won't
betray your confidence."

"Thank you. It's only a matter of time, as I gather. But a bad job for
him till he gets his sight again."

"He will, I suppose, in the end?"

"Oh yes--in the end. Sir Coupland is cautious, of course. But I don't
fancy he's really uneasy. His sight might come back suddenly, he said,
at any moment. Of course, _he_ believes his eyesight will come back.
Only meanwhile he wants--it was a phrase of his own--to keep all the
excruciation for his own private enjoyment. That's what he said!"

"I see. Of course, that makes a difference. And you think Sir Coupland
thinks he will get all right again?"

Mr. Pellew says he does think so, reassuringly. "It has always struck me
as peculiar," says he, "that Tim's family ... I beg pardon--I should
have said the Earl's. But you see I remember him as a kid--we are
cousins, you know--and his sisters always called him Tim.... Well, I
mean the family here, you know, seem to know so little of the Torrenses.
Lady Gwen doesn't seem to have recognised this chap in the Park."

"I believe she has never seen him. He has been a great deal abroad, you
know."

"Yes, he's been at German Universities, and games of that sort."

"Is that your third cigar, Mr. Pellew?"

"No--second. Come, I say, Miss Dickenson, two's not much...."

But her remark was less a tobacco-crusade than a protest again