To this end she read the debates religiously day by day; and she one day
ventured shyly to suggest that she should read them aloud to Lady
Maulevrier.
'Would it not be a little rest for you if I were to read your Times
aloud to you every afternoon, grandmother?' she asked. 'You read so many
books, French, English, and German, and I think your eyes must get a
little tired sometimes.'
Mary ventured the remark with some timidity, for those falcon eyes were
fixed upon her all the time, bright and clear and steady as the eyes of
youth. It seemed almost an impertinence to suggest that such eyes could
know weariness.
'No, Mary, my sight, holds out wonderfully for an old woman,' replied
her ladyship, gently. 'The new theory of the last oculist whose book I
dipped into--a very amusing and interesting book, by-the-bye--is that
the sight improves and strengthens by constant use, and that an
agricultural labourer, who hardly uses his eyes at all, has rarely in
the decline of life so good a sight as the watchmaker or the student. I
have read immensely all my life, and find myself no worse for that
indulgence.
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