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366 366 A SUCCESSFUL OPERATION,

be a failure, that he would live out the rest of his days with the earth prematurely over his eyes.

" I am very glad to see you, my dear," he would say when Mary came, and then he fell a- maundering self- pitifully.

Mary went home one day and said, " Robert, dear, I have been thinking."

"Yes, my pet," he said encouragingly, for she looked timid and hesitant.

" Couldn't we have the operation performed here? "

He was startled ; protested, pointed out the impossibility. But she had answers for all his objections. They could give up their own bedroom for a fortnight — it would only be a fortnight or three weeks at most — turn their sitting-room into a bedroom for themselves. What if infinite care would be necessary in regulating the " dark room," surely they could be as careful as the indifferent hospital nurses if they were only told what to do, and as for the trouble, that wasn't worth considering.

" But you forget, my foolish little girl," he said at last, " if he comes here we shall have to pay the expenses of the operation ourselves."

"Well, would that be much?" she asked innocently.

" Only fifty guineas or so, I should think," he replied crushingly. " What with the operating fee, and the nurse, and the subsequent medical attendance."

But Mary was not altogether crushed. " It wouldn . ~>e all our savings," she murmured.

" Are you forgetting what we shall be needing our savings for?" he said with gentle reproach, as he stroked her soft hair.

She blushed angelically. " No, but surely there will be enough left and — and I shall be making all his things