ow that
I work here."

The widow made a sign to her to be easy, greeted the grey-haired leech
who came in with his assistant; and then, while the old man examined the
injured limb, and cut the straps with a sharp pair of scissors, she
bathed the girl's face and cut head with a wet handkerchief, supported
the poor child in her arms, and, when the pain seemed too much for her,
kissed her pale cheeks.

Many sighs from the bottom of her heart, and many shrill little cries
betrayed how intense was the pain Selene was enduring. When at length,
her delicate and graceful foot-distorted just now by the extensive
swelling,--was freed from the bands and straps, and the ankle had been
felt and pressed in every direction by the leech, he exclaimed, turning
to the assistant who stood ready to lend a helping hand:

"Look here, Hippolytus, the girl came along the streets with her ankle in
this state. If any one else had told me of such a thing, I should have
desired him to keep his lies to himself. The fibula is broken at the
joint, and with this injured limb the child has walked farther than I
could trust myself at all--without my litter. By Sirius! child, if you
are not crippled for life it will be a miracle."

Selene had listened with closed eyes, and exhausted almost to
unconsciousness; but at his last words she slightly shrugged her
shoulders with a faint smile of scorn on her lips.

"You think nothing of being lame!" said the old man, who let no gesture
of his patient escape him. "That, of course, is your affair, but it is
mine to see that you do not become a cripple in my hands. The opportunity
for working a miracle is not given to one of us every day, and happily
for me, you yourself bring a powerful coadjutor to help me. I do not mean
a lover or anything of that kind, though you are much too pretty, but
your lovely, vigorous, healthy youth. The hole in your head is hotter
than it need be--keep it properly cool with fresh water. Where do you
live, child?"

"Almost half an hour from here," said Hannah, answering for Selene.

"She cannot be taken so far as that, even in a litter, at present," said
the old man.

"I must go home!" cried Selene, resolutely, and trying to sit up.

"Nonsense," exclaimed the physician. "I must forbid your moving at all.
Be still, and be patient and obedient, or your foolish joke will come to
a bad end; fever has already set in, and it will increase by the evening.
It has nothing much to do w