Dear Sir, - First of all, hearty congratulations on your wonderful Summer Annual. I was sorry there were no letters from one-legged girl readers, but I am looking forward to Wallace Stort's story.
Some tune ago I wrote to you under the name "One-legged Novice," and promised to send you some of my experiences, so here are a few of them.
It is now eight months since I became a one-legged girl, my right leg being amputated just above my knee, but I am glad to say that the souvenir of my amputation is now quite hard and firm, but I shall never wear an artificial leg, as I prefer my one-legged appearance too well.
I discarded my elbow crutches some time ago, and was measured for an armpit pair, but instead of having them finished as a pair, I had one in navy blue and one in gray, and now I hop one-legged with just one crutch cuddled under my right armpit, with my rather short and tight-fitting frock clinging to the shapely rounded end of the remnant of my amputated leg, causing passers-by to stare at my rather pronounced one-legged appearance.
I have now got quite accustomed to having only one leg, and really I must say that there is something indescribably fascinating in being a one-legged girl - at any rate, I have found it so. But I cannot yet break myself of the habit of trying to put to the ground my amputated leg, more especially after I have been sitting down for any length of time; but I am told that this is quite common in a one-legged person for a long time after the leg has been amputated, owing to the nerves which have to be left in the remaining stump.
After my amputation (at the age of 25) I thought it meant the end of things, but I soon discovered that it was the beginning, though rather an intriguing one, and now I am really and honestly proud of being one-legged, and love to do all sorts of things to draw attention to the fact that I am a one-legged girl with, as I am told, a figure of which many girls would be envious, and which is greatly enhanced by my one-legged incompleteness.
I have just come back from a camping holiday with three other girls from the office where I am a typist, and during this period I wore shorts, which I strongly recommend to any other one-legged girl for a holiday of this sort.
I was away from he office for five months after my amputation, but I have been back three months now, and the girls like to see me hop one-legged about the office, and sometimes they hide my crutch to see me hop without any aid at all.
One day the guv'nor's son came into our room (a charming fellow named Dick), and when he saw that I was one-legged he came and had quite a long chat with me, and now I share his office and do all his work for him.
One day when we were having a cup of tea he asked me how I liked being one-legged, and I told him quite truthfully that I preferred having only one leg, and then he told me how I fascinated him by hopping about his room on my single leg without a crutch, and heaps of my men friends have told me the same thing.
I can quite understand "One Leg" and her obsession towards one-leggedness, but although I never have had this obsession I am glad to be a one-legged girl.
I make the most of my vivid red hair, good looks, and figure, as I have been going out with Dick for some time now, motoring and to theatres, dinners, etc. He calls me his one-legged Venus.
There is only one thing I really miss, and that is dancing, so one night Dick and I and a few friends went to a club dance and I had quite a few dances (without my crutch, of course), just holding my partner tightly round the waist for support, and I was told that I did quite well. That night Dick and I got engaged.
We had a lovely day up-river last week in Dick's punt, and when we came to an isolated backwater with no one about Dick produced two bathing suits and said we would have a swim.
I naturally did not want to be too sensitive of my missing leg, but Dick insisted and made me give in. We had a most delightful swim (the first since I have been one-legged). It was rather strange at first with only one leg, but I got soon used to that. I must say that it was simply gorgeous for me as a one-legged girl to be able to do this, as I used to do a lot of diving and swimming before my leg was amputated.
Dick and I are getting married quite soon, and I am sure I shall be happy because when he proposed to me he told me he loved me not only because I am a really good-looking and attractive girl, but also because of the irresistible charm my one and only leg had for him, so that you see being one-legged has its compensations - at any rate, it has for me. We are going to Paris for our honeymoon, and I know we shall have a wonderful time in spite of my one leg.
Wishing "London Life" the continued success it so richly deserves, and in passing I might say I have read it for eight years, and I thank Mr. Wallace Stort for the way he has shown in the past how a one-legged girl can get pleasure in life instead of looking adversely on things in general after the amputation of a leg.
I am no longer a "One-legged Novice", but
Yours truly,
Content As I Am