"Yes, if you won't interfere with my picture selling," I said joyously.
"Hush! Mr. Winthrop may hear you. I think he is coming. But you may sell all the pictures you can, only don't speak of it now."
Mr. Winthrop was waiting for us. As he looked at me he said:—"You seem to have more mental sunshine than your share—your face is so bright. Possibly you have been having a specially happy season with your bereaved ones."
"With one of them I have been more than happy."
"May I ask the name of this favored individual?"
"It is Mr. Bowen, the blind man."
"Ah, then, you are finding the widowers most congenial. They do not dissolve into tears so readily as the widows; and there may be other fascinations. Really, I shall be compelled to forbid such intimacies."
"He is going to New York to-morrow morning, with the expectation of having his sight restored, after being blind nearly twelve years."
"I presume he is very poor, else you would not take such strong interest in him."
"He has no money. In other respects he is the richest person I ever knew."