Elijah told him his name. Charles Pettican did not pay attention to him; his mind was engrossed by other matters.
'Come here,' said he, 'here, beside me. Do you see them?'
'See what?' asked Elijah in return, gruffly, as Pettican caught his arm, and drew him down, and pointed out of the window.
'There they are. Isn't it wexing to the last degree of madness?'
'Do you mean your daughter and her sweetheart?'
'Daughter!' echoed the cripple. 'Daughter! I wish she was. No, she's my wife. I don't mean her.'
'What do you mean then?'
'Why, my crutches. Don't you see them?'
'No, I do not,' answered Rebow looking round the room.
'They are not here,' said Pettican. 'Admonition flew out upon me, because I wouldn't draw more money from the bank, and she took away my crutches, to confine me till I came into her whimsies. There they are. They are flying at the mast-head. She got that cousin of hers to hoist them. She knows I can't reach them, that here I must lie till somebody fetches them down for me. You should have heard how they laughed, those cousins as they call themselves, as my crutches went aloft. Oh! it was fun to them, and they could giggle and cut jokes about me sitting here, flattening my nose at the pane, and seeing my crutches hoisted. They might as well have robbed me of my legs—better, for they are of no use, and my crutches are. Fetch me them down.'