This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Torch Eye has not come;" this thought was a relief. She stepped toward the door, but, ere she gained it, a shadow darkened the opening, and a young man stood before her astonished eyes. He gazed at her with a slight smile, and stood aside, as if to let her pass out. But while she looked, her sight was dazzled, so she saw but half of his figure, and in trying to run by him, she came in contact with that half which her imperfect vision had rendered invisible. He put out his arm to save her from falling, and when she was fairly beyond him, she turned and said:

"Excuse me. I could see but half of you my head has got strange, and sometimes my sight serves me a bad turn."

"I am sure you don't look as if you were blind," said the young man, gazing at the trim figure before him.

"I'm not blind," was the answer; "only the beads have got in my head, and make me see wrong, sometimes."