The whiteness came over Ray Ingraham's face again She was just rising to her feet, with her hand upon the rail.
"Sit still," said Frank. "Let me go and bring you some water."
"She'll feel better to be by herself a minute or two, I dare say," said Mr. Newrich, following Frank as he went down. He had the tact to think of this, but not to go without saying it.
"A quick-witted young woman," he remarked, as they passed out of her hearing. "And sensible enough to keep her wits ahead of her feelings. If she had come at you, as half the women in the world would have done, you'd be a dead man this minute. Your sister, Sunderline?"
"No, sir—only a friend."
"Ah! onlier than a sister, may be? Well!"
Sunderline replied nothing, beyond a look.
"I beg your pardon. It's none of my business."
"It's none of my business, so far as I know," said Frank. "If it were, there would be no pardon to beg."
"You're a fine fellow; and she's a fine girl. I suppose I may say that. I tell you what; if you had come to grief, at the very end of this job you've done so well for me, I believe I should have put the place under the hammer. I couldn't have begun with such a piece of Friday luck as that!"