This timidly, and watching his face narrowly.
“Why, of course not,” said honest David, opening his eyes wide with surprise, “only I couldn’t ever quite make it out.”
She laughed softly and blushed vividly.
“Well, David—now you are in earnest?”
“Of course I am. Why, what’s the matter?”
“You know I was half delirious with the fever?”
“Yes.”
“And I longed to take a ride on my—your—wheel. How I did long to get out of that stuffy little room! It seemed to me that if I could find my wheel, and take a run in the pleasant outdoor air, it would do me so much good! Well, it seemed to me that I went out and wandered about the city till I found it. It was in front of Miss Bentley’s. And I saw you, and I knew by your face that you would be kind and lend it to me, because I was ill. Of course, when I found it, I bethought me that I should have a riding-suit, and I seemed to be clothed in the gray dress I used to wear. How funnily you acted! Do you remember stooping down, with your hands on your knees, to look at me?”
David grinned.
“That alarmed me a little, and when you came closer I walked away, and I remember changing my dress to a walking suit. And sometimes my mind changed from one to another, and I always seemed to myself to wear whatever I thought of. But, after you were so kind, and took so much trouble to push the tricycle about for me, and I saw you wanted to help me, out of pure sympathy, I ceased to be afraid of you, and got quite familiar, and—and—”