“Do you mean to say you’d marry a wreck like me, Teddy Rocco? I’m all to pieces; you haven’t a notion how badly I got mashed.”
“And I don’t care, neither,” said Teddy, stoutly. “You’re alive, thank Heaven! And you’re Sadie Simmons, and you can smile. Shall I send for a parson?”
“What, now?”
“Only say the word.”
The girl picked at the sheet for a moment, and her eyes, now ringed with suffering and no longer bright, searched his face wonderingly; but they found no trace of an emotion other than eagerness to be as good as his word.
“I don’t know,” she said at last; “it’ll need thinking over. You know, it was hitting the wire fence that saved me, Teddy. It was like diving into a net.”
“Pretty hard net,” grinned the boy, reminiscently.
“Lucky for you, or you’d have gone through it. Teddy boy, why didn’t you run over me? I’m so small! You must have been mad to ride into the fence like that.”
“Who told you?” demanded Teddy.
“Nurse. She says you hadn’t a chance in a thousand to get round me without breaking your neck. I always liked you, Teddy. I’m glad you’re brave.”