L. T. Meade

“ He sank down on the nearest chair, and clasped his strong hands tightly together.
“I am sure, Mr. Housman, you are making yourself unhappy very unnecessarily,” said Diana in her sweet voice. “If Victoria Hynton is the girl you and my husband have described, nothing can really alter her nature.”
“I am none so sure of that,” he replied. “The experiment is unnecessary. Again I repeat it is a pity to damage perfection. I have staked my all on Victoria. She is absolutely unique. There is not a girl like her on the face of God's earth. When she gets her sight, she will be like other girls. ”

“ I said. “Never since the world was made was there a man who thought less of himself and more of others than you do, but, in this special case, have you the right to interfere in order to deprive a girl of recovering the most precious sense ever given to man?”
“Yes,” he said, clapping one hand heavily on his knee,-“I believe that I am right. Victoria's case is peculiar—her nature is peculiar. She has been shut away from earth, although living in its midst for eighteen years. You must have seen for yourself, Gray, that the grosser things of life do not touch her.” ”

“ Now his many friends prophesied that Housman would never marry, that such a lover could not ever settle down, that such a lover of Nature and of mankind in general could never concentrate his affections on one woman only. ”

“ Housman lay back in his chair, and began to puff circles of smoke out of his pipe. He watched the vapour as it curled into the air and disappeared; then taking the pipe out of his mouth, he turned and looked at me.
“You do not believe in lovers' rhapsodies, do you?” he asked.
“I like to hear them in the case of genuine fellows like you,” I replied. “It is my opinion that a man cannot be too much in love with a girl before marriage. I believe in fervent attachments—they wear best in the end.” ”

“ Her impression is that I am the ideal of manly beauty. Now you understand how fatal it would be to my happiness if she were to recover her sight.”
“As she has reached the age of eighteen and has been blind from her birth, it is scarcely likely she ever will,” I replied. “Of course, I congratulate you, Housman. You always were completely out of the common, and a blind wife will add the crown to your peculiar charms. I need not tell you that I am anxious to see Miss Hynton.”
“That is good; you will come with me to Southsea to-morrow?” ”

“ Hynton, who looked as if she had been crying, “what has she said to him? Poor darling, she is never tired of repeating to her father and me that, in her opinion, her lover's face is the most beautiful in the world. I tremble to think, Mr. Gray, what she will feel when she really sees him.”
“Basil Housman is a right good fellow,” said O. P. Hynton, “but, bless my dollars, he is not handsome.”
Before I could reply a single word, the door was opened behind us, and Victoria and Housman came out. There were tears on Victoria's cheeks, but her eyes were full of happiness ”

“ I see landscapes everywhere. I am always making pictures about them. My brother Charley sometimes tells me that my pictures are much more beautiful than the reality. When he tells me so, I no longer wish for your ordinary sight.”
I talked to her for a little longer. She was full of brightness and intelligence. In short, she was up-to-date in every particular. After a time I looked at my watch, and found that the hour had arrived when I must catch my return train. I bade Miss Hynton good-bye, and left the room. Mrs. Hynton followed me into the ante-room. ”

“ The gross and common things of life have been shut away from her, but she has come in some wonderful inexplicable way into close contact with the beautiful. You will know for yourself when you see her. Gray, old chap, she has formed the most curious conception about me. ”

“ If she goes to an oculist, he will examine her eyes, and by so doing arouse a painful sensation within her which she will call by the name of 'hope.' She will long for that thing which she has never had, thinking it a much more precious gift than it is. ”

“ Hynton.
“The disappointment is much more likely to be the other way,” I answered. “Housman is quite in love with the idea of marrying a blind wife.”
“A seeing wife will be much more to the point when all's said and done,” interposed O. P. “Well, Mr. Gray, we will think over your suggestion; and if we think it best, we'll fix it up that he's to know. Anyhow, we take Victoria to London to-morrow.”
A moment or two afterwards I took my leave, and returned to town by the next train. ”

“ O. P. Hynton, who had entered the ante-room, went at once to his wife's side.
“I have been telling Mr. Gray of our intention of taking Victoria to an oculist in London,” she said.
“That's so,” he drawled. “That was our real reason for visiting Europe; we did not wish our girl to see any doctor unless she could see the best, so we put off the day of inquiry until she was grown up. Her mother and I are both surprised at Mr. Housman's wish to marry her, but as the young people fixed it all up for themselves, and of course we know nothing but what is good of Mr. ”

“ She will be induced to undergo a serious operation by which her perfect physical health will be jeopardised. The operation may or may not be successful. If it fails, she will have undergone unnecessary pain and anxiety. ”