“No; I am glad of it,” she declared, with her eyes upturned to his face, as if she were trying to pierce the black veil between them. “I do not think it will hurt me, and I shall have a chance to try to save him from certain ruin. It is his last chance. If I fail——”
“If you fail, dear little girl, an angel from heaven could not save him!”
Her lips quivered, and then a slow smile came and lingered on her pale face.
“You do care for me, don’t you, Frank?” she eagerly asked.
“Care for you? Nellie, I love you as if you were my own—sister.”
“And you never had a sister?”
“No.”
“You were the only child?”
“Yes.”
“How lonely it must have been! Just think what if I had not Jack. I love him, and he loves me. But I love you just as much, dear Frank.”