like this--a
burden to everybody."

"You have been with us now for nearly a week, and there have only been
two occasions on which you have seemed any different from another man,
and each time," said Hilary, with unflinching candour, "it has been
entirely your own fault! You would not let yourself be helped when it
was necessary. If I were in your place, I would say to myself--`I am
lame! I hate it, but whether I hate it or not, it's the truth. I am
lame! and everybody knows it as well as I do. I won't pretend that I
can do all that other people do, and if they want to be kind and help
me, I'll let them, and if they don't offer, I'll _ask_ them! Whatever
happens, I am not going to do foolish, rash things which will deceive
nobody, and which may end in making me lamer than ever!' And then I'd
try to think as little about it as I could, and get all the happiness
that was left!"

"Oh, wise young judge!" sighed Mr Rayner sadly. "How easy it is to be
resigned for another person. But you are quite right; don't think that
I am disputing the wisdom of what you say. I should be happier if I
faced the thing once for all, and made up my mind as to what I can and
cannot do. Well--Miss Carr told me her plans last night. If you come
to London, you must keep me up to the mark. I shall hope to see a great
deal of you, and if you find me attempting ridiculous things, such as
that ladder business to-day, you must just--what is it I am supposed to
have done?--`snub' me severely as a punishment."

Hilary smiled with two-fold satisfaction. So Mr Rayner agreed with her
in believing that Miss Carr's choice was practically certain. The
prospect of living in London grew more and more attractive as the
various advantages suggested themselves, and she was roll of delicious
anticipations.

"Oh, I will," she said merrily. "I am glad that I did not know you
before you were ill, because I see no difference now, and I can do it
more easily. I think I am like the Mouse; I like you better for being
different from other people. She spent a whole morning searching for
twigs in the garden, and now all her dolls are supplied with crutches."

"Dear little mortal! I never met a sweeter child," cried Mr Rayner,
and the conversation branched off to treat of Geraldine and her pretty
ways.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

THE WISHING GATE.

Lunch was ready when the visitors reached the hotel at Grasmere, and as
they were equally ready for lunc