poor Will called me his little wife." Here the tears which had
started to Jessie's eyes began to fall over the flower. "But now
Father would not hear of it; and it can't be. And I've tried to care
for some one else, and I can't, and that's the truth."

"But why? Has he turned out ill?--taken to poaching or drink?"

"No, no, no; he's as steady and good a lad as ever lived. But--but--"

"Yes; but--"

"He is a cripple now; and I love him all the better for it." Here
Jessie fairly sobbed.

Kenelm was greatly moved, and prudently held his peace till she had a
little recovered herself; then, in answer to his gentle questionings,
he learned that Will Somers--till then a healthy and strong lad--had
fallen from the height of a scaffolding, at the age of sixteen, and
been so seriously injured that he was moved at once to the hospital.
When he came out of it--what with the fall, and what with the long
illness which had followed the effects of the accident--he was not
only crippled for life, but of health so delicate and weakly that he
was no longer fit for outdoor labour and the hard life of a peasant.
He was an only son of a widowed mother, and his sole mode of assisting
her was a very precarious one. He had taught himself basket-making;
and though, Jessie said, his work was very ingenious and clever, still
there were but few customers for it in that neighbourhood. And, alas!
even if Jessie's father would consent to give his daughter to the poor
cripple, how could the poor cripple earn enough to maintain a wife?