If he is a poor man he will never
want . . . It will be a privilege to save so gallant a man from hardship
. . . ' Here she came to a stop. Stephen too was glad of the pause, for the emotion which the words and
their remembrances evoked was choking her. Had not Harold been as her
own father's son. As her own brother! . . . She turned away, fearing
lest her face should betray her. All at once Mrs. Stonehouse started to her feet, her face suddenly white
with fear; for a cry had come to their ears. A cry which even Stephen
knew as Pearl's. The mother ran to the window. The balcony was empty. She came back into the room, and, ran to the
door. But on the instant a voice that both women knew was heard from without:

'Help there! Help, I say! The child has fainted. Is there no one
there? And I am blind!' CHAPTER XXXVI--LIGHT


Harold had been in a state of increasing restlessness. The month of
waiting which Dr. Hilton had laid down for him seemed to wear away with
extraordinary slowness; this was increased by the lack of companionship,
and further by the cutting off of even the little episodes usual to daily
life. His patience, great as it was naturally and trained as it had been
by the years of self-repression, was beginning to give way. Often and
often there came over him a wild desire to tear off the irksome bandages
and try for himself whether the hopes held out to him were being even
partially justified. He was restrained only by the fear of perpetual
blindness, which came over him in a sort of cold wave at each reaction. Time, too, added to his fear of discovery; but he could not but think
that his self-sought isolation must be a challenge to the curiosity of
each and all who knew of it. And with all these disturbing causes came
the main one, which never lessened but always grew: that whatever might
happen Stephen would be further from him than ever. Look at the matter
how he would; turn it round in whatsoever possible or impossible way, he
could see no relief to this gloomy conclusion. For it is in the nature of love that it creates or enlarges its own pain. If troubles or difficulties there be from natural causes, then it will
exaggerate them into nightmare proportions. But if there be none, it
will create them. Love is in fact the most serious thing that comes to
man; where it exists all else seem as phantoms, or at best as actualities
of lesser degree. During the better part of two years his troubles had
but slept; and as nothing wakes the pangs of old love better than the
sound of a voice, all the old acute pain of love and the agony that
followed its denial were back with him. Surely he could never, never
believe that Stephen did not mean what she had said to him that morning
in the beech grove. All his new resolution not to hamper her with the
burden of a blind and lonely-hearted man was back to the full. In such mood had he been that morning. He was additionally disturbed
because the Doctor had gone early to Port Lannoch; and as he was the only
person with whom he could talk, he clung to him with something of the
helpless feeling of a frightened child to its nurse. The day being full of sunshine the window was open, and only the dark-
green blind which crackled and rustled with every passing breeze made the
darkness of the room. Harold was dressed and lay on a sofa placed back
in the room, where the few rays of light thus entering could not reach
him. His eyes and forehead were bandaged as ever. For some days the
Doctor, who had his own reasons and his own purpose, had not taken them
off; so the feeling of blind helplessness was doubly upon him. He knew
he was blind; and he knew also that if he were not he could not in his
present condition see. All at once he started up awake. His hearing had in the weeks of
darkness grown abnormally acute, and some trifling sound had recalled him
to himself. It might have been inspiration, but he seemed to be
conscious of some presence in the room. As he rose from the sofa, with the violent motion of a strong man
startled into unconscious activity, he sent a shock of fear to the eager
child who had strayed into the room through the open window. Had he
presented a normal appearance, she would not have been frightened. She
would have recognised his identity despite the changes, and have sprung
to him so impulsively that she would have been in his arms before she had
time to think. But now all she saw was a great beard topped with a mass
of linen and lint, which obscured all the rest of the face and seemed in
the gloom like a gigantic and ominous turban. In her fright she screamed out. He in turn, forgetful for the moment of
his intention of silence, called aloud:

'Who is that?' Pearl, who had been instinctively backing towards the
window by which she had entered, and whose thoughts in her fright had
gone back to her mother--refuge in time of danger--cried out:

'Mother, Mother! It is him! It is The Man!' She would have run towards
him in spite of his forbidding appearance; but the shock had been too
much for her. The little knees trembled and gave way; the brain reeled;
and with a moan she sank on the floor in a swoon. Harold knew the voice the instant she spoke; there was no need for the
enlightening words

'Pearl! Pearl!' he cried. 'Come to me, darling!' But as he spoke he
heard her moan, and the soft thud of her little body on the thick carpet. He guessed the truth and groped his way towards where the sound had been,
for he feared lest he might trample upon her in too great eagerness. Kneeling by her he touched her little feet, and then felt his way to her
face. And as he did so, such is the double action of the mind, even in
the midst of his care the remembrance swept across his mind of how he had
once knelt in just such manner in an old church by another little
senseless form. In his confusion of mind he lost the direction of the
door, and coming to the window pushed forward the flapping blind and went
out on the balcony. He knew from the freshness of the air and the
distant sounds that he was in the open. This disturbed him, as he wished
to find someone who could attend to the fainting child. But as he had
lost the way back to the room now, he groped along the wall of the Castle
with one hand, whilst he held Pearl securely in the other. As he went he
called out for help. When he came opposite the window of the Mandarin room Mrs. Stonehouse saw
him; she ran to him and caught Pearl in her arms. She was so agitated,
so lost in concern for the child that she never even thought to speak to
the man whom she had come so far to seek. She wailed over the child:

'Pearl! Pearl! What is it, darling? It is Mother!' She laid the girl
on the sofa, and taking the flowers out of a glass began to sprinkle
water on the child's face. Harold knew her voice and waited in patience. Presently the child sighed; the mother, relieved, thought of other things
at last and looked around her. There was yet another trouble.