Blind Love

Fanny, equal to the emergency, asked Miss Henley for her handkerchief,

joined her own handkerchief to it, and began to bandage the wound. "Try

if his pulse is beating," she said quietly to her mistress. The foreman

made himself useful by examining the suicide's pockets. Iris thought

she could detect a faint fluttering in the pulse. "Is there no doctor

living near?" she cried. "Is there no carriage to be found in this

horrible place?"

The foreman had discovered two letters. Iris read her own name on one

of them. The other was addressed "To the person who may find my body."

She tore the envelope open. It contained one of Mr. Vimpany's cards,

with these desperate words written on it in pencil: "Take me to the

doctor's address, and let him bury me, or dissect me, whichever he

pleases." Iris showed the card to the foreman. "Is it near here?" she

asked. "Yes, Miss; we might get him to that place in no time, if there

was a conveyance of any kind to be found." Still preserving her

presence of mind, Fanny pointed in the direction of "The Spaniards"

inn. "We might get what we want there," she said. "Shall I go?"

Iris signed to her to attend to the wounded man, and ascended the

sloping ground. She ran on towards the road. The men, directed by

Fanny, raised the body and slowly followed her, diverging to an easier

ascent. As Iris reached the road, a four-wheel cab passed her. Without

an instant's hesitation, she called to the driver to stop. He pulled up

his horse. She confronted a solitary gentleman, staring out of the

window of the cab, and looking as if he thought that a lady had taken a

liberty with him. Iris allowed the outraged stranger no opportunity of

expressing his sentiments. Breathless as she was, she spoke first.

"Pray forgive me--you are alone in the cab--there is room for a

gentleman, dangerously wounded--he will bleed to death if we don't find

help for him--the place is close by--oh, don't refuse me!" She looked

back, holding fast by the cab door, and saw Fanny and the men slowly

approaching. "Bring him here!" she cried.

"Do nothing of the sort!" shouted the gentleman in possession of the

cab.

But Fanny obeyed her mistress; and the men obeyed Fanny. Iris turned

indignantly to the merciless stranger. "I ask you to do an act of

Christian kindness," she said. "How can you, how dare you, hesitate?"