to myself at times, and remember
that I do not possess the advantages of other men. Besides, facts are
facts: I am lame. I cannot dance, and although I can walk, it is with a
limping gait: I should be a poor fellow in a foot-race. I don't suppose
that my being a cripple will forfeit me anything in the kingdom of
heaven, but, nevertheless, it obliges me to forego a good many pleasures
here on earth."

"You are not a cripple!" she burst out impetuously. "You have every
advantage! What is it that you cannot dance? I despise men who whirl
about like puppets: I have never seen them waltzing but they must make
themselves ridiculous. I am glad you cannot dance: you are on the level
of too much dignity and noble behavior to condescend to such petty
things. And surely you do not want to run a foot-race!" she added with
an intensity of disdain which made me laugh, high-wrought and painful
although my mood was. Then her lip trembled, and I saw tears in her eyes
as she went on. "If you were a cripple," she pursued in a low, eager
voice, "really a helpless cripple, everybody would love you just the
same. Why, Floyd, what do you think it is to me that, as you say, you do
not possess the advantages of other men? Have you forgotten how it all
came about? I was a little girl then, but there is nothing that happened
yesterday clearer to my memory than that terrible morning when I cost
you so dear. I know how I felt--as if forsaken by the world. I wondered
if God looked down and saw me, alone, in danger, blind and dizzy and
trembling, so that again and again I seemed to be slipping away from
everything that held me. I could not have stayed one minute more had I
not heard your voice. You were so strong, so kind, Floyd! When you
reached me your hands were bleeding, your face scratched and torn, your
breath came in great pants, but you looked at me and smiled. And then
you carried me to the top and put me in safety, and I let you go down,
down, down!" She was quite speechless, and leaned her cheek against my
hand, which she still held, and wet it freely with her tears.

"If you mind your lameness," she said brokenly, with intervals of
sobs--"if you feel that Fate is cruel to you--that there is any reason
why you cannot be perfectly happy--then I wish," she exclaimed with
energy, "that I had never been born to do you this great injury. I love
my life, I love papa, I love your mother and you, and it seems to me as
if I were going to be a ver