"A true one!"
"True as steel—I know it. Good-bye, Sid—keep strong for—the—old—father's sake. Will—you?"
"Yes."
"That's well!"
Sid bent over him and kissed him—kissed the calm face, so awfully calm and still now!—and then turned to Mattie.
"Take me away, Mattie. I can bear no more now. He was spared one trouble, thank God! In all his life he never guessed the end of this."
Mattie turned round, with a new fear possessing her.
"Sidney—Mr. Sidney!"
"Here—Mattie," he said, stretching forth his hand, and grasping, as it were, furtively for hers. "I shall need friends now to help me."
"Not—oh! my God, not blind?"