"People must. D'you think I don't know what I've done?" the child stammered. "Wouldn't you let me come, just for a bit, to work for you--to help you to look after Dick? I'd never be any trouble. I can do my own hair and everything. I'd just be legs for Dick!"
"Yes. It's all my fault he can't use his. If I came I could just be there to hand him things and run his errands. He doesn't mind telling me to do things, but he won't ask you, 'cause he hates you to get tired. Oh, couldn't I come, just as Dick's legs?"
"Yes, sonnie." Mrs. Lester put Merle aside and went in.
"Don't let that poor kiddie cry," he said. "I say, couldn't we take her?"
"You want her, Dick?" said his mother, amazed.
"Oh, she's not a bad kid," Dick said. "I give you an awful lot of work now, and she'd save you a bit. And she wants to come ever so. Might as well let her, don't you think?"
Mrs. Lester looked at her husband uncertainly.
"If you want her I expect you can have her, old son," he said. "I'll see what her father and mother say."
He went out, leaving Dick and his wife alone. A small, sobbing figure crept after him.
"Why, of course you are, old man," she said brightly.
"When am I going to sit up?" It was the question she had long dreaded, and she was ready for it.
"When your back strengthens sufficiently. You must give it time, beloved."
"It's not the spear wound? Nurse says that's all right."
"Oh, the spear wound was nothing--beyond being painful at first. You see, when Conqueror threw you, you fell on an outcrop of ironstone, and that is what has given you the real trouble." She forced a smile. "You know, you can't bounce about on ledges of rock as if you were india-rubber!"
He was silent a moment, and then spoke suddenly; and there was terror in his eyes.
"I've been wondering ... lying here," he said, "I'd heard about fellows with broken backs, and I do feel so queer and helpless. Of course I knew I couldn't get well all in a hurry; but I thought it was about time I could move my legs."
He looked at her with the absolute trust that all his life she had seen in his eyes. Twice she tried to speak before words would come.
"Will you just go on being patient, Dick?" she said at last. "I know it is hard--and you have been wonderfully good. Try not to get impatient yet."