Fascinated, she found her eyes searching the shape beside her for a clew to the answer of this lamentable mystery. In her covert scrutiny there was no morbid desire to spy upon another's hidden miseries--our Miss Smith was too well-bred for that--only was there a sudden quickened pity and with that pity a yearning to offer, if opportunity served, any small comfort of act or word which might fitly come her way. As her glance--behind the cover of her reopened book--traveled over the cloaked shape searching for a clew to the secret she saw how that chance promised to serve her ends. The girl was half turned from her, a shoulder pressing against the window ledge; the twist of her body had drawn one front breadth of the cape awry so that no longer did it completely overlap its fellow. In the slight opening thus unwittingly contrived Miss Smith could make out at the wearer's belt line a partly obscured inch or two of what seemed to be a heavy leathern gear, or truss, which so far as the small limits of the exposed area gave hint as to its purpose appeared to engage the forearms like a surgical device, supporting their weight below the bend of the elbows. With quickening and enhanced sympathy the little woman winced.
Then she started, her gaze lifting quickly. Of a sudden she became aware that the girl was regarding her straightforwardly with those haggard eyes.
"Can you tell what the--the trouble is with me?" she asked.
She spoke under her breath, the wraith of a weary little smile about her mouth.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," answered Miss Smith contritely. "But please believe me--it was not mere cheap inquisitiveness that made me look."
"I think I know," said the girl softly. "You were sorry. And it doesn't matter much--your seeing. Somehow I don't mind your seeing."
"But I haven't really seen--I only caught a glimpse. And I'm afraid now that I've been pressing too closely against your side; perhaps giving you pain by touching your arms."
"My arms are not hurting me," said the girl, still with that queer ghost of a smile at her lips. "I've not been hurt or injured in any way."
She choked the involuntary question even as she was framing it.
"This--this has been done, I suppose, to keep me from hurting anyone else."