There was contempt too in her tone, contempt for Ethne Eustace, the woman of the open air who was afraid, who shrank from marriage with a blind man, and dreaded the restraint upon her freedom.

It was that shrinking which Ethne had to conceal--Mrs.Adair had no doubt of it.

"For my part, I am glad," she said, and she was--fiercely glad that blindness had disabled Durrance.
For if her opportunity ever came, as it seemed to her now more and more likely to come, blindness reserved him to her, as no man was ever reserved to any woman.

So jealous was she of his every word and look that his dependence upon her would be the extreme of pleasure.

She watched Ethne and Durrance meet on the lawn at the foot of the terrace steps.