'Indeed,' she said, looking up to Lance, 'it was very wrong. I could not believe anything so exquisite had been done for me.'
'As if anything—'
'But haven't I been punished!' she went on, not pausing. 'Oh! to think I never—never could unsay it, nor ask your pardon!'
'Pardon!' he gasped, turning as red as before he had been pale, and holding a chair for support; and before he could say another word, the impulsive girl cried, 'And oh! it is all my selfishness, bothering him when he looks so dreadfully ill.'
'No, no,' broke out Lance, afraid he was frightening her away, and still almost beside himself. 'This is perfect healing.'
'Don't talk nonsense,' broke in Cherry, half comprehending, but a good deal alarmed, and therefore assuming authority with some peremptoriness; 'the truth is, you are both famished, and must have some breakfast this instant.' She poured out coffee, and then moved to provide eatables. Lance's instinct was of course to help her, but his hand shook so much that he had to relinquish the bread-knife. 'Yes,' said Cherry, as she took it from him; 'no wonder! When did you eat last?'
'I—can't tell. Somebody made me swallow something hot and abominable when I came in, and my head has never stopped going round ever since; but I don't care now.'
'No doubt it saved you from something worse.—You know he was longer in the water than any of us.'
'I don't know anything,' said Gertrude. 'I thought Mr. Underwood—'
Then it had to be explained—that is, as much as Cherry and Lance knew. 'Some tipsy fellows racing us—the shock—the helpless plunge;' then Cherry had felt the instant security of Clement's arm, and was drawn up the bank.