His intention was still strong to make a very clean breast of it to Roberta.  If she had blamed him for his prudent reserve, she should have full opportunity to forgive him.  All that he had been she should know, but far more important than that, he would try to make her know, better than he had done before, what he was now.  Abandoning all his previous positions, and mounted on these strong resolutions, thus would he dash into her camp, and hope to capture her.

Reaching the little ravine, at the bottom of which flowed the branch, now but two or three feet wide, he ran down the rather steep slope and stepped upon the stout plank which bridged the stream.  The instant he did so, the plank turned beneath him as if it had been hung on pivots, and he fell into the stony bed of the branch.  It was an awkward fall, for the leg which was undermost came down at an angle, and his foot, striking a slippery stone, turned under him.  In a moment he was on his feet, and scrambled up the side of the ravine, down which he had just come.  When he reached the top he sat down and put both his hands on his right ankle, in which he felt considerable pain.  In a few minutes he arose, and began to walk toward the house, but he had not taken a dozen steps before he sat down again.  The pain in his ankle was very severe, and he felt quite sure that he had sprained it.  He knew enough about such things to understand that if he walked upon this injured joint, he would not only make the pain worse, but the consequences might be serious.  He was very much annoyed, not only that this thing had happened to him, but that it had happened at such an inauspicious moment.  Of course, he could not now go on to the woods, and he must get somebody to help him to the house.  Looking about, he saw, at a distance, Uncle Isham, and he called loudly to him.  As soon as Lawrence was well away from the edge of the ravine, there emerged from some thick bushes on the other side of it, and at a short distance from the crossing-place, a negro girl, who slipped noiselessly down to the branch; moved with quick steps and crouching body to the plank; removed the two round stones on which it had been skilfully poised, and replaced it in its usual firm position.  This done, she slipped back into the bushes, and by the time Isham had heard the call of Mr Croft, she was slowly walking down the opposite hill, as if she were coming from the woods to see why the gentleman was shouting.

Miss March also heard the call, and came out of the woods, and when she saw Lawrence sitting on the grass on the other side of the branch, with one hand upon his ankle, she knew that something had happened, and came down toward him.  Lawrence saw her approaching, and before she was even near enough to hear him, he began to shout to her to be careful about crossing the branch, as the board was unsafe.  Peggy joined her, and walked on in front of her; and when Miss March understood what Lawrence was saying, she called back that she would be careful.  When they reached the ravine, Peggy ran down, stepped upon the plank, jumped on the middle of it, walked over it, and then back again, and assured her mistress that it was just as good as ever it was, and that she reckoned the city gentleman didn’t know how to walk on planks, and that “he jes’ done fall off.”