Dear Sir, - "Crippled Wife" and "Greta No Toes" who contributed letters to your recent double number, may be interest in a curious experience of my own.
About two years ago I went North for the Christmas holidays, and among other things I attended a jolly Christmas party. Though a private affair, it was on a biggish scale and was held in the Assembly Rooms of a well-known restaurant.
Dancing had already started when I noticed a little group arrive, only one of which I knew, the rest being strangers. There were four couples in the group, and the odd thing was that one of the girls was being carried into the room by one of the boys.
The group settled down quite near me; but, curiously enough, the girl who had been carried in, when she slipped out of her partner's arms, stood for a while chatting with a number of friends who had come up.
I say "curiously enough", for it at once became quite plain that the girl had only one leg and was standing very easily balanced on her foot. She was a very pretty girl, hardly out of her teens, and the shortness of her flimsy dress was noticeable in a room full of long dresses. It was as if she were proud of her one leg and liked to show it off. It was certainly very neat and slim, and I saw she was wearing a small, very open satin sandal slipper without a heel.
If I was surprised at a one-legged girl appearing at a party, you can think how surprised I was when the young fellow who had carried her put his arm around her and led her on to the dance floor. Of course, she did not really dance, but she hopped about quite gaily, screaming with laughter all the time as she passed her friends.
She "danced" several dances like this at intervals, and it was interesting to note that whenever she wanted to greet her friends in various parts of the room she just hopped across the room quite easily and without any embarrassment.
But I haven't yet revealed the most astonishing thing about her. Very soon after her arrival I was just going to ask my lady friend, who knew her well, why the girl did not use crutches, when I suddenly saw the reason for myself. It was a curious thing that I did not see it right away but the fact is I didn't.
With her very flimsy, lacey dress she wore loose transparent sleeves. These were specially made to fall gracefully to the waist, where they were gathered in and became part of the dress. As she stood near me I thought I had an odd impression that there was something very unusual about the way those sleeves were gathered in, when a sudden movement near her shoulder caught my eye.
The truth became at once so plane that I wondered why I hadn't noticed it before. The girl was not only one-legged, but positively had no arms. Or, I should say, instead of arms, all she had were two little stumps about 3 inches long, each from the shoulder; and it was the sudden movement of one of these that I had seen.
Well, to cut a long story short, I learnt all about her during the evening. She was married to the young fellow who had carried her in, and the marriage had been a most romantic one.
The girl was a Belgian, and about two or three years before had come to England with a German manager on exhibition. She was born with no arms and only one leg, her left, and (as I was able myself to prove later on in the evening, for during the fun she "danced" with me and also playfully sat on my knee) without any stump at all of her missing right leg. She wars quite willing to talk about herself.
It was while she was on show that the English boy saw her and fell in love with her at first sight. I understand that there was a lot of trouble with the manager, but as the boy was of well-to-do parents he was able to compensate the man handsomely for the loss of his principal "star." They were married quietly and, in spite of all the head shakings, the marriage has turned out a very happy one.
The girl is of most cheerful, vivacious disposition, and the extraordinary thing seems to be that, so far from grieving about her condition, she has a curious pride in her beautiful yet trained body. Stranger still, perhaps, her husband is not only passionately fond of her, but makes it quite plain that he thinks her limblessness the most attractive thing about her, and likes her to show off her one-limbed body as much as possible.
By the way, an interesting point about the night I met her. During the supper, at which they sat near me, her husband fed his limbless wife, but I learned that though in public they felt it advisable to do this, she always fed herself at home, using her toes as easily as a normal person uses his fingers.
I was privileged to see her toes and, in fact to "shake hands" with her. Her silk stocking was cut away at the toe, leaving her toes bare. They were long and delicately formed, extraordinarily like fingers and, of course, beautifully kept.
On the big toe she wore a big, flat cameo ring, and on the fourth toe miniature engagement and wedding rings. The little toe, oddly enough, was missing, and she only had four toes.
Her leg was so flexible that she could (and did, for my benefit) run her toes, as another woman does her fingers, through the curls at the back of her head.
I can vouch for the facts of everything I have here related, and I hope I haven't gone to too great length.
Yours truly,
Spectator