ed
soldier, while my mother looked on with tearful, and Ivanka with eager,
eyes, "no, I will not be discarded. You must not presume, on the
strength of your being weak, to talk nonsense. I hold you, sir, to your
engagement, unless, indeed, you admit yourself to be a faithless man,
and wish to cast me off. But you must not dispute with me in your
present condition. I shall exercise the right of a wife by ordering you
to hold your tongue unless you drop the subject. The doctor says you
must not be allowed to talk or excite yourself, and the doctor's orders,
you know, must be obeyed."

"Even if he should order a shattered man to renounce all thoughts of
marriage?" asked Nicholas.

"If he were to do that," retorted Bella, with a smile, "I should
consider your case a serious one, and require a consultation with at
least two other doctors before agreeing to submit to his orders. Now,
the question is settled, so we will say no more about it. Meanwhile you
need careful nursing, and mother and I are here to attend upon you."

Thus with gentle raillery she led the poor fellow to entertain a faint
hope that recovery might be possible, and that the future might not be
so appallingly black as it had seemed before. Still the hope was
extremely faint at first, for no one knew so well as himself what a
wreck he was, and how impossible it would be for him, under the most
favourable circumstances, ever again to stand up and look like his
former self. Poor Bella had to force her pleasantry and her lightsome
tones, for she also had fears that he might still succumb, but, being
convinced that a cheerful, hopeful state of mind was the best of all
medicines, she set herself to administer it in strong doses.

The result was that Nicholas began to recover rapidly. Time passed, and
by slow degrees he migrated from his bed to the sofa. Then a few of his
garments were put on, and he tried to stand on his remaining leg. The
doctor, who assisted me in moving and dressing the poor invalid,
comforted him with the assurance that the stump of the other would, in
course of time, be well enough to have a cork foot and ankle attached to
it.

"And do you know," he added, with a smile, "they make these things so
well now that one can scarcely tell a false foot from a real one,--with
joint and moveable instep, and toes that work with springs, so that
people can walk with them quite creditably--indeed they can; I do not
jest, I assure you."