When she had finished reading the missive, she left her chair and came to my side.
She bent over my shoulder, holding the parchment before me.
"What I want to do, but can't--what I want you to do is so small and simple a matter that it is almost amusing.

I grow angry when I think that I cannot do so little a thing to help myself; but you see, Sir Karl, I tremble and my hand shakes to that extent I fear to mar the page.

I simply want to make the letter 't' on this parchment and I can't.

Will you do it for me ?" "Ay, gladly," I responded, "but where and why ?" Then she pointed out to me the word "nov" in the manuscript and said:-- "A letter 't,' if deftly done, will make 'not' instead of 'nov.' Do you understand, Sir Karl ?" I sprang to my feet as if I had been touched by a sword-point.

The thought was so ingenious, the thing itself was so small and the result was so tremendous that I stood in wonder before the daring girl who had conceived it.