She only carried the pole because it was customary to begin with the least difficult feats.

Yet, while gracefully placing one foot before the other, she said to herself--safe as she felt--that, while so much agitated, she would be wiser not to look down again into the depths below.

She did avoid it, and with a swift run gained the end of the rope without effort, and went up and down it a second time.
While, on reaching the end of her walk, she was chalking her soles again, the applause which had accompanied her during her dangerous pilgrimage still rose to her ears, and came-most loudly of all from the stand where Lienhard sat among the distinguished spectators.

He, too, had clapped his hands lustily, and shouted, "Bravo!" Never had he beheld any ropedancer display so much grace, strength, and daring.

His modest protegee had become a magnificently developed woman.