第42章

"Oh, no," said one of the young men, leaning towards her."Life is sweet, under any circumstances.""Oh, but blind!" cried the young voice, with a shudder."Quite blind for the rest of one's life.Horrible!""Was it his own gun?" asked the older woman."And how came they to be having a shooting party in March?"Jane smiled a fierce smile into the moonlight.Passionate love of animal life, intense regard for all life, even of the tiniest insect, was as much a religion with her as the worship of beauty was with Garth.She never could pretend sorrow over these accounts of shooting accidents, or falls in the hunting-field.When those who went out to inflict cruel pain were hurt themselves; when those who went forth to take eager, palpitating life, lost their own; it seemed to Jane a just retribution.She felt no regret, and pretended none.So now she smiled fiercely to herself, thinking: "One pair of eyes the less to look along a gun and frustrate the despairing dash for home and little ones of a terrified little mother rabbit.One hand that will never again change a soaring upward flight of spreading wings, into an agonised mass of falling feathers.One chance to the good, for the noble stag, as he makes a brave run to join his hinds in the valley."Meanwhile the military-looking man had readjusted his eye-glasses and was holding the sheets of a closely written letter to the light.

"No," he said after a moment, "shooting parties are over.There is nothing doing on the moors now.They were potting bunnies.""Was he shooting?" asked the girl.

"No," replied the owner of the letter, "and that seems such hard luck.He had given up shooting altogether a year or two ago.He never really enjoyed it, because he so loved the beauty of life and hated death in every form.He has a lovely place in the North, and was up there painting.He happened to pass within sight of some fellows rabbit-shooting, and saw what he considered cruelty to a wounded rabbit.He vaulted over a gate to expostulate and to save the little creature from further suffering.Then it happened.One of the lads, apparently startled, let off his gun.The charge struck a tree a few yards off, and the shot glanced.It did not strike him full.The face is only slightly peppered and the brain quite uninjured.But shots pierced the retina of each eye, and the sight is hopelessly gone.""Awful hard luck," said the young man.

"I never can understand a chap not bein' keen on shootin'," said the youth who had not yet spoken.

"Ah, but you would if you had known him," said the soldier."He was so full of life and vivid vitality.One could not imagine him either dying or dealing death.And his love of the beautiful was almost a form of religious worship.I can't explain it; but he had a way of making you see beauty in things you had hardly noticed before.And now, poor chap, he can't see them himself.""Has he a mother?" asked the older woman.

"No, he has no one.He is absolutely alone.Scores of friends of course; he was a most popular man about town, and could stay in almost any house in the kingdom if he chose to send a post-card to say he was coming.But no relations, I believe, and never would marry.Poor chap! He will wish he had been less fastidious, now.He might have had the pick of all the nicest girls, most seasons.But not he! Just charming friendships, and wedded to his art.And now, as Lady Ingleby, says, he lies in the dark, helpless and alone.""Oh, do talk of something else!" cried the girl, pushing back her chair and rising."I want to forget it.It's too horribly sad.Fancy what it must be to wake up and not know whether it is day or night, and to have to lie in the dark and wonder.Oh, do come out and talk of something cheerful."They all rose, and the young man slipped his hand through the girl's arm, glad of the excuse her agitation provided.

"Forget it, dear," he said softly."Come on out and see the old Sphinx by moonlight."They left the piazza, followed by the rest of the party; but the man to whom the MORNING POST belonged laid it on the table and stayed behind, lighting a cigar.

Jane rose from her chair and came towards him.

"May I look at your paper?" she said abruptly.

"Certainly," he replied, with ready courtesy.Then, looking more closely at her: "Why, certainly, Miss Champion.And how do you do? Idid not know you were in these parts."

"Ah, General Loraine! Your face seemed familiar, but I had not recognised you, either.Thanks, I will borrow this if I may.And don't let me keep you from your friends.We shall meet again by and by."Jane waited until the whole party had passed out of sight and until the sound of their voices and laughter had died away in the distance.Then she returned to her chair, the place where Garth had seemed so near.She looked once more at the Sphinx and at the huge pyramid in the moonlight.

Then she took up the paper and opened it.

"Enable with perpetual light The dulness of our blinded sight."Yes--it was Garth Dalmain--HER Garth, of the adoring shining eyes--who lay at his house in the North; blind, helpless, and alone.