“Lean on me,” he said, very gently.
The girl bit her trembling lip till the blood came. “Thank you,” she said, crushing back her tears; “my crutch is enough—but you need not have known it. Kindness is comparative; one can be too kind.”
He misunderstood her and drew back. “I forgot,” he said, quietly, “what privileges are denied to criminals.”
“Privilege!” she faltered. After a moment she laid one hand on his arm.
“I shall be very glad of your help,” she said; “I am more lame than I wish the world to know. It was only the vanity of a cripple that refused you.”
But he thought her very beautiful as she passed with him out into the starlight.