Evening star., 1925-08-23

1
| "All she needed'' they made it.
Mother stood in the doorway, watch
ing the two fade into the general
brightness and beauty of the Spring
morning, and K seemed to her they
vanished sooner than they had even
sterday-certainly sooner than last
week, when she had seen them as far
as the corner. She tried herself out
in various tests, and they gave star
tling certainty of lost ground. Her
chill of fright took itself out in indig-
nation against DR.. Bowen.
"Patting and blatting-I don'b be-
lieve he knows much about eyes or
anything else" she scolded. Her first
thought was that she would go to
town tomorrow with the girls and con-
suit some big man. like DR.. Oscar
Stein. The second thought, character
istically hers, was to dress in haste
and take the next train. There was
no sense in making the girls go to
work wondering what the oculist
would say.
Patients usually had to wait for ap-
pointments with DR.. Stein, but as
she had come from a distance she
was Sympathetically crowded in.
DIR. Stein saw a tall, wispy woman,
her face delicately lined and hallowed
between gray tendrils but still lifted
into romance by the fine. high nose;
what he heard was the martial ring
of common sense.
I've been ordered to rest my eyes.
and I've been patted and cheered and
told not to worry, and I've had enough
of all that. ] want the truth.
sha MT faint dare say / sha mt
even cry. Anyway, you needn't care
if | do. Am l going blind?"
He gave her what she asked for
Yes, l am afraid you are"
She did not cry, did not even seem
shocked, or pause.
How soon?"
He thought in about two months
He knew of no operation, nothing
that would help.
We'll, after all, I'm not so SUR
prised," she said in a surprised tone
Il guess l knew it, more or less.
down underneath"
He tried to say something kind
about her courage, but she was wholly
outside of herself, as impersonal as
mechanician with a broken machine
THE thing is. how not to be a
nuisance she told him, and went out
more strongly than she had come in.
There ii was, the eager little girls
tearing of to their work. believing in
the righteous splendor of careers as
young soldiers believe in the Cause.
going headlong in the good direction
where her hand had always pointed.
Must one of them be jerked back to
potter about with a blind woman?
Either would do it, readily, pitifully,
with her impatience very seldom
bursting up through her goodness
and her desolation usually hidden in
her own room. They would do their
sturdy best, her Mona and Betty; but
what would life be to her. knowing
every day the full measure of what
she was taking?
"Old nuisance" she said aloud. and
had to cover 1t with a cough
Her mother would have pointed out
that sacrifice made character. But
they do sacrifice, every day. only
they're SO sweet and happy thev
don't call 1t that" she argued. Their
characters are getting all the devel-
opment they need. Spoil a girls life
in order to make a fine character of
her?-I guess not.' But how to
help it.
CHE got her tea and a pretense of
- lunch at dairy next door, vaguely
surprised that she could see to help
herself. for il seemed as though at
least two months had gone by since
she had received her sentence. The
"dlITeS5 WAS friendly, ana the words
nearly uttered themselves-"Tbe doc
tor says I'm going blind" She wanted
to tell the gateman at the ferry, and
when the conductor, standing by his
train, recognized her by name, she
stopped short, the news at her lips,
and had TO substitute some foolish
question. With the awful need to tell
went a sharp reluctance to having it
known.
II guess l want the fun of seeing
them jump, but don't want to be of
fered consultations" she told herself
Then the sight of Pussy Meadows
bearing down on her seat brought
d flicker of forlorn humor. She
could tell Pussy in perfect safety!
Pussy Meadows went to town a good
deal, and in the streets she was
delightful young woman going about
her important affairs; then the clock
on the ferry struck and she went
home, poor Pussy Meadows, who was
getting deafer all the time. The sweet
animation of her face, the smiling
depths of womanhood that made
strangers wish they knew her, We're
lost in a strident gayety that oppressed
and exhausted. Tired neighbors would
resort to strategy or even miss train
in order not to share a seat with
Pussy Meadows.
Today her mood seemed abnormally
strained; she chartered as though to
keep out some sound, and her averted
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