II.
At first no one perceived it. The boy had that vague way of looking at objects common to all very young infants. As the days went by, the life of the new-born man could soon be reckoned by weeks. His eyes grew clearer; the thin film that had overspread them disappeared, and the pupil became defined. But the child was never seen to turn his head, to follow the bright sunbeams that found their way into the room; nor did the merry chirping of the birds, nor the rustling of the branches of the green beech-trees in the shaded garden beneath the windows, attract his notice.
The mother, who had now recovered, was the first one to mark with anxiety the strange immobility of the child’s expression, so invariably calm and serious. With pitiful eyes, like a frightened dove, she would question those about her: “Tell me what makes him look so unnatural?”
“What do you mean?” strangers would reply in tones of indifference; “he looks like all other children of his age.”
“But watch him! See how oddly he fumbles with his hands!”
“The child cannot yet regulate the movements of his hands by the impressions which his eyes receive,” replied the doctor.
“Why does he look constantly in one direction? He is—blind!”
As the dread suspicion found utterance in words, not one of them could calm the mother’s agitation. The doctor took the child in his arms, and turning him suddenly toward the light, looked into his eyes. An expression of alarm passed over his countenance, and after a few vague remarks he took his leave, promising to return in two days. The mother moaned and fluttered like a wounded bird, pressing the child to her bosom, while the boy’s eyes kept ever the same steadfast and rigid stare.
The doctor did return in two days, bringing with him an ophthalmoscope. After lighting a candle, he proceeded to test the eyes of the infant by flashing it suddenly before them and as suddenly withdrawing it; finally, with an expression of distress, he said,—
“It grieves me deeply, Madam, but I am forced to admit that you have divined the truth. The boy indeed is blind,—irremediably blind.”
Sadly, but without agitation, the mother listened to this announcement. “I knew it long ago,” she softly murmured.