A Lifes Eclipse | Page 6

bright sunshine again."
There was silence for a moment, and then the doctor took the young man's hand, his voice shaking a little, as he said gravely--
"Grange, my lad, three weeks ago I felt that I could not save your life. God has heard our prayers, and let my poor skill avail. You will in a few weeks be as strong as ever."
"Yes--yes," said the patient, in tones of humble thankfulness, and then his lips moved for a few moments, but no sound was heard. Then aloud--"Believe me, doctor, I am grateful. But the bandage. Let me see the light."
"My poor fellow!" began the doctor, and old Hannah uttered a sob, "you must know."
"Ah!" cried John Grange, snatching the bandage from his eyes, the broad handkerchief kept there ever since the fall. "Don't--don't tell me that--I--I was afraid--yes--dark--all dark! Doctor--doctor--don't tell me I am blind!"
Old Hannah's sobs grew piteous, and in the silence which followed, James Ellis stole on tiptoe towards the window, unable to be a witness of the agony which convulsed the young man's face.
"Then it is true!" said Grange. "Blind--blind from that awful shock."
"Ah, here you are, Master Barnett," cried the voice of old Tummus outside. "The doctor. Is he coming over? 'Cause he needn't now."
"What is the matter?" said Ellis, stepping out, with Daniel Barnett backing away from the porch before him.
"Poor owd Dunton's gone, sir; dropped off dead ripe at last--just gone to sleep."
James Ellis looked Daniel Barnett in the eyes, and both had the same thought in their minds.
What a change in the younger man's prospects this last stroke of fate had made!
CHAPTER FIVE.
"I am very deeply grieved, Mr Manning," said Mrs Mostyn, as she sat in her drawing-room, holding a kind of consultation with the doctor and James Ellis, her old agent, and as she spoke, the truth of her words was very evident, for she kept applying her handkerchief to her eyes. "I liked John Grange. A frank, manly fellow, whose heart was in his work, and I fully intended, Ellis, that he should succeed poor old Dunton."
"Yes, ma'am; a most worthy young man," said the bailiff.
"Worthy? He was more than that. He was fond of his work and proud of the garden. Go in that conservatory, doctor, and look at my orchids. His skill was beyond question."
"Your flowers are the envy of the county, Mrs Mostyn," said the doctor.
"Ah, well! It is not my flowers in question, but this poor fellow's future. Do you mean to tell me that you can do nothing for him?"
"I regret to say that I must," said the doctor gravely. "We try all we can to master Nature's mechanism, but I frankly confess that we are often very helpless. In this case the terrible shock of the fall on the head seems to have paralysed certain optical nerves. Time may work wonders, but I fear that his sight is permanently destroyed."
"Oh, dear, dear, dear!" sighed Mrs Mostyn, down whose pleasant old face the tears now coursed unchecked; "and all to satisfy my whims--all because I objected to a ragged, broken branch. But, doctor, can nothing be done?"
"I can only recommend one thing, madam--that he should go up to one of the specialists, who will suggest that he should stay in his private infirmary."
"Well, why not?" said Mrs Mostyn eagerly.
"There is the expense, madam," said the doctor hesitatingly.
"Expense? Pooh! Fudge! People say I am very mean. Poor old Dunton used to say so, and James Ellis here."
"I beg your pardon, ma'am--" began the bailiff.
"Oh, don't deny it, James; you know you have. I heard of it over and over again, because I would not agree to some extravagant folly proposed by you or poor old Dunton for the estate or garden."
"But--"
"Silence! I remember Dunton said I could spend hundreds on new orchids, and stinted him in help; and you were quite angry because I wouldn't have half-a-mile of new park palings, when the old mossy ones look lovely. But I'm not mean, doctor, when there is a proper need for outlay. Now you go at once and make arrangements for that poor young man to be taken up to town and placed in this institution. Mind, you are to spare no expense. It was my fault that poor Grange lost his sight, and I shall never love my garden again if his eyes are not restored."
The doctor rose, shook hands, and went away, leaving the bailiff with his mistress, who turned to him with her brow all in puckers.
"Well, James Ellis, I hardly know what to say. It is a dreadful shock, and I don't like to do anything hastily. If there was a prospect of poor Grange recovering I would wait."
The bailiff shook his head.
"Doctor Manning told me, ma'am, that he was afraid it was hopeless."
"And I'm