The Spectator., 1915-04-20
LOVE WAS NOT BLIND By GEORGE MUNsON.

NyI to where her younger sister, Dulcie waited upon the landing. It is terrible. I cannot stay there, T she whispered.
 Dulcie, who had been trembling suddenly managed to pull herself to- gether and entered the room with a hrm tread. She went up to the bed side.
 "Is that you, Julia?" murmured the sick man again.
 "Yes,' answered Dulcie bravely
 Two days before, Jim Ridgely, her sisters fiance, had been struck by lightning. His recovery, at first de spaired of. now seemed assured, but he was blind, and the doctors held out DO hope of his regaining his sight.
 The optic nerve is paralyzed," they said. There is the barest chance, but the cure must be a spontaneous one, and it must happen within the next two or three days. Unless by a miracle that should happen, he will be blind the rest of his life"
 Julia Brothers was the belle of the town, and Ridgely rising young law yer. Though Julia and Dulcie were alike in speech and manner, and were often mistaken for each other, when side by side it was plain that Dulcie was only poor image of Julia. She was generally considered plain; the difference, however, existed principal ly in Julias dashing ways and Dulcie's unattractive and simple ones
 Poor Dulcie. whose tender heart went out to Ridgely, knew that her heartless sister would never dream of marrying blind man. She could trace the unconscious processes in Julia's heart even now And it seemed to her that she must do her best to shield Ridgely until he recov- cred Possibly his sight would come back to him. and then he need never know that it was she, and not Julia. who had sat at his bedside all those long hours when he lay racked with pain and fever
 He Is sleeping" she told her sister. when at last she went out to her
 What shall I do. Dulcie?" moaned Julia "I cannot bear to look upon suf- fering. What shall do?"
 Then Dulcie told her her plan. And 1t worked surprisingly. A week elapsed, and at the end of that time, although the doctors announced that there was now no hope of Ridgely's ever recovering his sight, he was able to sit up. And he had not guessed that it was Dulcie who had sat by his bedside and read to him in her gentle voice. He had thought 1t was Julia.
 And in the midst of the pain Dulcie felt to think of Ridgely's coming disil- lusionment, there was a fierce exul- tation in her heart.
 For Dulcie loved Ridgely. She had loved him from the beginning, and now more than ever before her heart went out to this blind man, doomed to be dependent throughout his life upon the help of others.
 Ridgely had been brought into the Brothers home simply because he had no one to care for him. Old Mrs. Brothers, a gentle old lady, alternately dominated and petted by Julia, had assented to the plan with alacrity. But when she understood Julia's inten- tions she shook her head mournfully
 He thinks I am Julia, mother Dulcie whispered to her T don't know how to tell him"
 The old lady fared up for the first time in many years. If you ask me- she said, tossing her head. "I think that Jim Is well rid of her.
 will you tell him, mother?" asked Dulcie, eagerly.
 "No, my dear That is for you, said the old lady
 And then, resolved to end a situation which had become unbearable, Dulcie ran up the stairs and into Jim's room. He was lying on the sofa, looking out of the window with his sightless eyes.
 Do you know. dear. that I have neither asked nor received kiss dur Ing the whole of my illness?" asked Jim patiently.
 Dulcie blushed painfully.
 "Jiyl. there is something that must tell you" she stammered, seat ing herself at his side
 'Is it something terrible!" he asked gayly. Tell me, Julia, and let me see whether l find it as bad as you think 1t is.'
 "Oh. you don't understand" the girl burst out And yet don't know how you can have been so bli-so unable to understand. l am not Julia. l am Dulcie. and Julia-Julia-oh, Jim, how can manage to tell you that she does not care for you any more. and has not been near you since the second day of your illness? Oh, Jim, she doesn't care for you and never did care, and 1t is hard to have to tell you, and-and-"
 And Dulcie broke into a storm of passionate tears.
 Jim's hand fel. lightly upon her own. l q knew it was you, Dulcie," he said ! softly.
 Dulcie raised her tear-stained face !