That dreadful experience is burned deep into my memory. The sudden
apparition of the girl; the sense of being torn away from the protecting
arms around me; the frantic effort to escape; the shriek that accompanied
my fall through what must have seemed unmeasurable space; the cruel
lacerations of the piercing and rending thorns,--all these fearful
impressions blended in one paralyzing terror.
When I was taken up I was thought to be dead. I was perfectly white, and
the physician who first saw me said that no pulse was perceptible. But
after a time consciousness returned; the wounds, though painful, were
none of them dangerous, and the most alarming effects of the accident
passed away. My old nurse cared for me tenderly day and night, and my
father, who had been almost distracted in the first hours which followed
the injury, hoped and believed that no permanent evil results would be
found to result from it. My cousin Laura was of course deeply distressed
to feel that her thoughtlessness had been the cause of so grave an
accident. As soon as I had somewhat recovered she came to see me, very
penitent, very anxious to make me forget the alarm she had caused me,
with all its consequences.
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