“Indeed I am. How you must have suffered!”
“I thought you would hate me for subjecting you to such mortification.”
“But you couldn’t help it. I would be very unjust to blame you.”
“And you do not dislike me because I am so crippled?”
“How could I? You are a soldier. You lost your leg honorably, did you not?”
“It was shot away at Gettysburg.”
“You lost it to save my country, and you think I would not honor you for such a sacrifice?”
“Your kind words make me brave. If I might dare—”
“Such a hero as you may dare anything,” she said.
“May I dare to ask if, while you honor me, you can also love me?”