For
a moment more he was able to control himself and remain perfectly still,
then his eyelids quivered, and a groan burst from him.
At the sound Elsie started to her feet, then bending over him, "You're
hurt, Lester," she said, unconsciously addressing him for the first time
by his Christian name; "what can I do for you?"
"Have me carried to Fairview," he said faintly; "my leg is broken and I
cannot rise or help myself."
"Oh, what can I do," she cried, "how can I leave you alone in such pain?
Ah!" as steps were heard approaching, "here is grandpa coming up in search
of me."
She ran to meet him and told him what had happened.
He seemed much concerned. "Solon is here with the carriage," he said. "I
was going to ask your company for a drive, but we will have him take
Leland to Fairview first. Strange what could have taken him into that
tree!"
That broken limb kept Lester Leland on his back for six long weeks.
His aunt nursed him with the utmost kindness, but could not refrain from
teasing him about his accident, asking what took him into the tree, and
how he came to fall, till at last, in sheer desperation, he told her the
whole story of his love, his hopelessness on account of his poverty, his
determination not to go back to Ion to be thanked by Elsie and her parents
for saving her life, his inability to go or stay far away from her; and
finally owned that he had climbed the tree simply that he might be able to
watch her, himself unseen.
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