"It's about the business—you're tired of it?"
"On the contrary, I am pleased with it, and the work it throws in my way. But don't you find me a little bit of a nuisance always here?"
"You know better than that. Next to my daughter, do you hold a place in my heart."
"Thank you. Now, have you ever thought of me marrying?"
"Of you marrying!" he echoed, in a surprised tone, that was somewhat feigned. "Why, whom are you to marry, Sid?"
"Mattie, if she'll have me."
The lithographer rubbed his hands softly together—it was coming true at last, this dream of Mattie and his own!
"If she'll have you!" he echoed, again. "Well, you must ask her that."
"Do you think she'll have me—a blind fellow like me? Is it quite right that she should, even?"
"I don't know—I have often thought about that," said Mr. Grey, forgetting his previous expression of astonishment. "I don't see where the objection is, exactly, Sidney. You're not like most blind men, dulled by your affliction—and Mattie is very different from most girls. If she thought that she could do more good by marrying you, make you more happy, she would do it."