Page:The Mystery of Central Park.djvu/111

Rh "I'm glad to know you, sir," Blind Gilbert said, deferentially. "May be you know me, sir. It's sixteen years this coming August since I've had a stand on Broadway. I don't do much business, but I'm thankful for all I have. The Lord, in all this mercy, seen fit to afflict me, but he never let old Gilbert starve."

"How did you lose your sight?" Richard asked awkardlyawkwardly [sic], not wishing to express any opinion concerning the mercy of making a man blind.

"Well, it came very sudden like. I had a little shop in this very room, sir, and I lived in the one back, where I've lived ever since 1 lost my shop. I done a good business, as I had done ever since me and me old woman came out from Ireland, these forty years ago. Me old woman fell sick and after running up a long doctor bill, she died, the Lord bless her soul, for if we had our fights, she was a good woman to me. One mornin' after she had been