I may say to you, I think, that this strange influence came even more than a year ago. I have tried in my own mind to establish a connection between its beginning and an accident which happened at that time. We had gone for a week-end visit to the Tencorts' farm in the Sweetbriar Hills, and much against my wishes, expressed, however, sleepily, Julianna had gone out at sunrise, chosen a rangy mare, saddled the creature herself, for the grooms were not up, and had ridden off across the wet fields, alone. Breakfast had already been announced when we heard the hoofs of the animal and caught glimpses of the horse's yellow neck and Julianna's plaid jacket, bobbing toward us under the arching trees. "Your lady is hardly what one might call a gentle rider," said Jack Tencort. "As for me, I'm glad to see the mare in a foam for once, but I would not be pleased to have my own wife--Hello, she is using her right hand." I, too, could see that Julianna's left arm was hanging by her side, and as she pulled up the panting mare below the porch, I noticed that her lips were white. "I'm sorry to have forced your animal," she said, "but I was in a hurry to get back. Jerry! Please hurry. Help me off." "What's the matter?" cried our host behind me. "To tell the truth," she said. "I have had my arm broken." "Thrown?" cried Tencort, looking for signs of mud or dust on her costume. Julianna smiled gamely. "That is a matter wholly between myself and the mare," she answered. You know, of course, that in spite of her unconcerned answers the thing was serious. The great trouble, I have always thought, was that no good surgeon was within reaching distance; the country doctor who set the bones failed to discover the presence of some splinters at the elbow, which the injury had thrust up into and displaced some of the nerves and sinew there. When we had come back home and Nederlinck, the surgeon, had discovered how the healing process had gone on, he told me that for many weeks my wife would have to suffer great pain from the readjustment of the irritated nerves. For two months he did what little he could and then left the rest to time.