“Six months later I returned that way on my journey home from Java. I took a sampan and was sculled across to the little island, and there in front of the bungalow I found Dalton sitting beneath the high shade of the royal palms. He had grown heavy; the last lines had left his face, which was now smooth as that of a child. I noticed as his hands rested on the arms of the chair that the thumbs had thickened, yet his other senses had begun to do the mechanical work of his lacking sight.”
“‘Is that you, Leyden?’ he asked, in a full, flat, heavy voice, the voice which suggested a fat throat. His two children were playing about his chair; all three were munching a confection of sugar and chopped cocoanut.
“‘Yes,’ he said, in answer to my question. ‘We are doing nicely. Ah, Leyden, each cloud has its silver lining....’ His wife joined us at this point and a glance at her face showed me the change. I had never known it otherwise, yet the change was evident. ‘... I wrote to the earl ...’ continued Dalton—his voice grew slightly peevish—‘ ... and while he was not above hurting the feelings of a poor blind man ...’—the fat voice grew querulous—‘ ... he was generous ... very generous ...’—a complacent note crept in.
“I glanced at the woman and a shiver ran down my back. ‘I am glad ...’ I managed to mutter, ‘... very glad....’ She glanced at me warningly and laid her finger on her lips, then nodded toward the landing. I shook his hand, which was sticky from the sweet-meats.
“‘Good-bye ... I have barely time ...’ I mumbled and followed the woman toward my boat.”
THE END
- Transcriber’s Notes:
- Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected.
- Unbalanced quotation marks were left as the author intended.
- Typographical errors were silently corrected.
- Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a predominant form was found in this book.