“Such impediments as are placed in the path of progress!” she returned.  Her eyes were laughing, but her voice had in it a little note of tenderness.  “Will you do something for me?”

“Anything—­everything.”

“It’s only this,” said Barbara, gently.  “If it should turn out the other way, will you keep father from being lonely?  Miss Wynne has promised that he shall never want for anything, and, at the most, it couldn’t be long until he was with me again, but, in the meantime, would you, Roger?  Would you try to take my place?”

“Nobody in the world could ever take your place, but I’d try—­God knows I’d try.  Barbara, I couldn’t bear it, if——­”

“Hush.  There isn’t any ‘if.’  It’s all coming right to-morrow.”

[Sidenote:  Beauty of a Saint]

The full moon had swung slowly up out of the sea, and the misty, silvery light touched Barbara lovingly.  Her slender hands, crossed in her lap, seemed like those of a little child.  Her deep blue eyes were lovelier than ever in the enchanted light—­they had the calmness of deep waters at dawn, untroubled by wind or tide.  Around her face her golden hair shimmered and shone like a halo.  She had the unearthly beauty of a saint.

“Afterward?” he asked, with a little choke in his voice.

“I’ll be in plaster for a long time, and, after that, I’ll have to learn to walk.”

“And then?”

“Work,” she said, joyously.  “Think of having all the rest of your life to work in, with no crutches!  And if Daddy can see me—­” she stopped, but he caught the wistfulness in her tone.  “The first thing,” she continued, “I’m going down to the sea.  I have a fancy to go alone.”

“Have you never been?”

“I’ve never been outside this house and garden but once or twice.  Have you forgotten?”

All the things he might have done came to Roger, remorsefully, and too late.  He might have taken Barbara out for a drive almost any time during the last eight years.  She could have been lifted into a low carriage easily enough and she had never even been to the sea.  A swift, pitying tenderness made his heart ache.

“Nobody ever thought of it,” said Barbara, soothingly, as though she had read his thought, “and, besides, I’ve been too busy, except Sundays.  But sometimes, when I’ve heard the shore singing as the tide came in, and seen the gulls fly past my window, and smelled the salt mist—­oh, I’ve wanted it so.”

“I’d have taken you, if I hadn’t been such a brute as to forget.”

[Sidenote:  More than the Sea]

“You’ve brought me more than the sea, Roger.  Think of all the books you’ve carried back and forth so patiently all these years.  You’ve done more for me than anybody in the world, in some ways.  You’ve given me the magic carpet of the Arabian Nights, only it was a book, instead of a rug.  Through your kindness, I’ve travelled over most of the world, I’ve met many of the really great people face to face, I’ve lived in all ages and all countries, and I’ve learned to know the world as it is now.  What more could one person do for another than you have done for me?”