We must
have our rights, widow.'
'Rights! Do you know,' she said, 'that a word from me--'
'Why do you stop?' returned the blind man calmly, after a long pause.
'Do I know that a word from you would place my friend in the last
position of the dance of life? Yes, I do. What of that? It will never be
spoken, widow.'
'You are sure of that?'
'Quite--so sure, that I don't come here to discuss the question. I say
we must have our rights, or we must be bought off. Keep to that point,
or let me return to my young friend, for I have an interest in the lad,
and desire to put him in the way of making his fortune. Bah! you needn't
speak,' he added hastily; 'I know what you would say: you have hinted
at it once already. Have I no feeling for you, because I am blind? No, I
have not. Why do you expect me, being in darkness, to be better than
men who have their sight--why should you? Is the hand of Heaven more
manifest in my having no eyes, than in your having two? It's the cant
of you folks to be horrified if a blind man robs, or lies, or steals;
oh yes, it's far worse in him, who can barely live on the few halfpence
that are thrown to him in streets, than in you, who can see, and work,
and are not dependent on the mercies of the world.
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