"That's rough luck, isn't it?" said Durrance, when Calder had read the
letter through. "For here's the one thing I have always wished for, and
it comes when I can no longer take it."
"I think you will find it very difficult to refuse to take it," said
Calder. "I do not know Miss Eustace, but I can hazard a guess from the
letters of hers which I have read to you. I do not think that she is a
woman who will say 'yes' one day, and then because bad times come to you
say 'no' the next, or allow you to say 'no' for her, either. I have a
sort of notion that since she cares for you and you for her, you are
doing little less than insulting her if you imagine that she cannot
marry you and still be happy."
Durrance thought over that aspect of the question, and began to wonder.
Calder might be right. Marriage with a blind man! It might, perhaps, be
possible if upon both sides there was love, and the letter from Ethne
proved--did it not?--that on both sides there _was_ love. Besides, there
were some trivial compensations which might help to make her sacrifice
less burdensome. She could still live in her own country and move in her
own home. For the Lennon house could be rebuilt and the estates cleared
of their debt.
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