Anna Chapin Ray

“ To his present point of view, it mattered little to Rob that the doctor, after long months of indecision, had hinted that, with proper care, he might have a well leg in time. Time was finite, when it was a question of college athletics; and the deliberations of a specialist, as Rob had learned to his cost, were infinite. He sought to beguile the hours by reading treatises on football or rowing, and the many stories in which sports play an important part. ”

“ Had the truth been told, Rob Argyle was in a position where his salvation lay in his sense of humour, in its happy trick of extracting fun from the most commonplace of situations. Otherwise, Rob's existence would have been rather a bore, just then. For two entirely happy years, his school life had centered in making a good enough record in his classes to balance his increasing prowess in athletics. Already he was captain of his crew and quarterback on his football team ”

“ With an unwonted haste which owed its origin to repeated warnings from the porter, he stepped down from the car and started for the breakfast-room door. Then deliberately he turned back to Rob who, by means of the conductor and his stick, was making a toilsome progress down the steps.
"Oh, I say, can't I give you a hand somehow?" he asked. "It's so tiresome, you know, not to get about." And, suiting his step to Rob's, he crossed the platform at his side. ”

“ Rob, carrying a suitcase and leaning rather heavily on the stick in his hand, had sought the Pullman ticket office in the Grand Central Station at New York. To his obvious impatience, his pathway had been blocked by a heap of luggage, a porter and a diminutive Englishman with an utterance which seemed to be chiefly composed of the letter A, and that at the widest possible span.
"Oh; but really I can't," he was remonstrating.
"Change at Springfield," the clerk reiterated mechanically.
"Get out of one car and get into another?" ”

“ Slowly and with care, he could walk about the house, and even for short distances outside. He could not dance, so what was the use of going to parties, even suppose he was lucky enough to be invited to any, in this strange city where his winter was to be spent. Then he checked himself abruptly. After all, he was getting back to the things he could not do; and it was much more in keeping with his ideas to count the things he could. At least, he was out of hospital, and able to get about again. ”

“ Still later, and while the white-coated porter was busy with the berths, Rob cast aside his magazine and annexed the conductor.
"What's the exhibit, across the aisle?" he demanded.
"Plain freak."
"And going?" Rob queried.
"To Quebec."
Rob stretched out his lame leg on the opposite seat and made a gesture of invitation.
"Sit down; that is, unless you are busy. Are there many like him up there?"
"Not so many. It's a city where one gets all sorts; but this is a rare one."
"You know the place well?" Rob inquired.
"Rather."
"Is it—" Rob cast about in his mind for a comprehensive question. ”