The minute I said it I was sorry—and glad. For although Father laughed, Dr. Denton looked perfectly furious! It must be painful to turn the color he does—like a—a chameleon.
Then Father kissed me. Under his breath I heard him say, "God bless my Mavis!" and in a moment I was alone with the enemy.
The steel-blue eyes regarded me for a full moment, and then, almost sternly, he spoke.
"Miss Carroll," he said, "with your permission, and with your help, without which we can do nothing, we are going to ask you to make a series of efforts: first, to sit erect unaided; then, to stand; and, by slow degrees, to walk."
There was something so confident in his tone! Perhaps he might have gone on, but I flung out both hands to him, and he waited.
"Doctor!" I cried, "Doctor—it isn't possible! I have tried! They made me try at first, and it nearly killed me. Don't make me," I begged childishly; "don't make me go through all that horror again!"
"There will be no horror," he said deliberately. "There will be pain—yes—but comparatively slight. All through the summer I have watched your case. Little by little we have stimulated the unused muscles, as you have gained in vitality. At the time following your accident, it was naturally torture to you to be forced to submit to the hands of doctors and nurses. But eleven years have gone by, and I am convinced, and have convinced both our good friend MacAllister and your father, that the injury to your back has long since healed, and that nothing remains but the inflexibility of the muscles and, if I may term it such, a type of mental paralysis."
"You mean...." I began, not yet believing.
"I mean," he interrupted, "that your mind has persuaded your body that it will never walk again. Now, I know better. Yours is not the first case of this sort which has been brought to my attention. I have seen six cures out of eight such cases during my studies abroad. They interested me very much. It was primarily your case that brought me to Green Hill. And the cure—please believe me—rests entirely with you."
"I don't believe it!" I said flatly, staring at him. "It simply isn't possible that half a hundred doctors have been mistaken." And my eyes, although my tongue did not, said very plainly, "And who are you?"