he had meekly bowed his head
to Fate; but ever since he had, figuratively speaking, kicked against
the pricks, and repaid the kindness of his companions by incessant
grumblings and complaints. He hated having to give up his own way; he
hated being tied to a sofa and a bath-chair; he resented offers of help
as if they had been actual insults, and hindered his recovery by
foolhardy attempts at independence.

"How would you like to be an invalid for life?" Mollie asked him
severely after one of these outbursts. "There was a young man in
mother's district, every bit as strong and big as you, and a sack of
something fell on his back while they were trying to haul it up into a
warehouse. He was taken to the hospital, and they told him that he
would never walk again, never even sit up again. As long as he lived he
would be a helpless cripple. And he was just going to be married, too!"

"Well, I'm not, thank goodness!" cried Jack bluntly. "Why do you tell
me such gruesome stories? My own troubles are quite enough just now. I
don't want to hear any more horrors."

"It was just to distract your mind from yourself that I did tell you.
Once upon a time I met a man who read me a beautiful lecture upon the
dangers of being selfish and self-engrossed. I'll tell you his very
words, if you like. They made a deep impression upon me at the time,"
said Mollie naughtily. But instead of being amused, Jack was only
irritated afresh.

In these first days of invalidism Mollie's influence was the reverse of
soothing, for Jack was not in the mood to be teased, and if his inner
determination could have been put into words it would have been that he
objected to be cheered up, refused to be cheered up, and insisted upon
posing as a martyr; therefore, it followed that Ruth's gentle
ministrations were more acceptable than her sister's vigorous sallies.
If he could have seen again the Mollie of whom he had caught a glimpse
on Sunday evening, Jack would have chosen her before any other
companion; but, as she had made place for a mischievous tease, he
preferred to look into Ruth's lovely anxious eyes, and to dilate at
length upon his symptoms to her sympathetic ear.

Mr Farrell's behaviour at this critical juncture did not throw oil upon
the troubled waters. He took care that Jack should have every
attention, and inquired as to his progress with punctilious regularity;
but he plainly considered a sprained ankle a very trivial affair, w