human
Bless you for a mind reader! That was bully, and blew away a lot of distemper. If you'll just do it again going back I'll submit to the afternoon of a clam in a bed of mud.
gpt
Good. We'll beat that record going back, if we break the speedometer. Racing with time isn't supposed to be the game for a convalescent, but I'm inclined to think it's the dose you need, just the same. I expect, Jord, that the first time you pull on a pair of rubber boots and go to climbing around a big concrete dam somewhere your heart will break for joy.
human
My heart will stand anything, so that it's action.
gpt
Will it? I thought it might be a bit damaged. It's had a good deal of reaction to stand lately, I'm afraid.
human
Red, you're a wizard.
gpt
Not much of a one. It doesn't take extraordinary powers of penetration to guess that a flame applied to a bundle of kindling will cause a fire. And when you keep piling on the fuel something's likely to get burned.
human
Did I pile on the fuel?
gpt
You sure did. If there had been gunpowder under the kindling you could have expected an explosion--and a wreck.
human
There's no wreck.
gpt
No? I thought there might be--somewhere.
human
Do you think I carried it too far?
gpt
I think you carried it some distance--for an invalid's diversion.
human
I was genuinely interested and I saw no harm. If there's any harm done it's to myself, and I can stand that. I'm not conceited enough to imagine that a broken-backed cripple could make any lasting impression.
gpt
Do you consider that a description of yourself?
human
I certainly do.
gpt
Know this then --Burns spoke deliberately--
human
That's absurd. Women want men, not cripples.
gpt
You're no cripple. Stop using that term.
human
What else? A man condemned to wear a plaster jacket for at least a year.
gpt
Bosh! Suppose the same thing happened to me. Would you look on me askance for the rest of my days, no matter what man's job I kept on tackling? Besides, the plaster jacket's only a precaution. You wouldn't disintegrate without it.
human
I'm glad to hear that, I'm sure. As for looking at you askance--you are you, R.P. Burns.
gpt
Apply the same logic to yourself. You are you, and will continue to be you, plus some assets you haven't had occasion to acquire before in the way of dogged endurance, control of mind, and such-like qualities, bred of need for them. You will be more to us all than you ever were, and that's saying something. And the back's going to be a perfectly good back; give it time. As for--if you don't mind my saying it--that invalid's diversion, I don't suppose it's hurt you any. What I'm concerned for is the hurt it may have done somebody else. I don't need to tell you that it wasn't possible for Ellen and me to have that little girl on our hearts all that time and not get mightily interested in her. She's the real thing, too, we're convinced, and we care a good deal what happens to her next.
human
So do I.
gpt
That's good. But you let her go away without making sure of keeping any hold on her. You don't know where she is now.
human
That wasn't my fault. That was hard luck.
gpt
I don't think much of luck. Get around it.
human
I'll do my best, I promise you. But I wish you'd tell me--
gpt
Yes?
human
She didn't make a sign--not one--of any injury, I assure you. She's a gallant little person, if ever there was one--and a thoroughbred, though she may be as poor as a church mouse. No, I should never have guessed it. She went away with all sails set and the flags flying. All I know is what my wife says.
gpt
Please tell me.
human
I'm not sure it will be good for you. Burns smiled as he drew up beside a house.
gpt
However--if you will have it--she says Miss Anne Linton took away with her every one of your numerous letters, notes, and even calling cards which had been sent with flowers. She also took a halftone snapshot of you out at the Coldtown dam, cut from a newspaper, published the Sunday after your accident. The sun was in your eyes and you were scowling like a fiend; it was the worst picture of you conceivable.
human
Girls do those things, I suppose,
gpt
Granted. And now and then one does it for a purpose which we won't consider. But a girl of the type we feel sure Miss Linton to be carefully destroys all such things from men she doesn't care for--particularly if she has started on a trip and is travelling light. Of course she may have fooled us all and be the cleverest little adventuress ever heard of. But I'd stake a good deal on Ellen's judgment. Women don't fool women much, you know, whatever they do with men.