132 THE COUSINS.

“Oh, no, papa! they would be better than that,
and I would try to bear them.”

Mr. Lovett put his arm tenderly around his
daughter as he said, “God, my child, has been
very good to you; for, though he has seen it
necessary to afflict you farther, he has mercifully
set a limit to the affliction. Instead of inflicting
on you some suffering which would endure for
life, Dr. Foster thinks that, in a few weeks, or
months at farthest, you will be able to walk again
as well as ever.”

“Will it be so long as that, papa, before I am
strong cnough to walk?”

“Not before you are strong enough, Lucy; but
it is not only your weakness, my child, which
prevents your walking.”

The faint tinge of colour which had begun to
show itself in Lucy’s cheeks in the last week or
two, faded away, leaving her very pale, as she
said, in an agitated tone, “What else is it,
papa?”

“You know, my daughter, that your limbs
have been cramped by rheumatism, and that you
cannot stretch them out fully in bed. “While they