“Don’t think about that now. Just lie still and relax.”
Miss Kippenberg did not try to speak again for some little time. Then, despite Penny’s protests, she raised herself to a sitting position.
“I feel quite all right now,” she insisted. “How stupid of me to faint.”
“I am afraid I was very tactless.”
“On the contrary, our conversation had nothing to do with it.”
“I thought—”
“It was the heat,” Miss Kippenberg insisted. “I had a sunstroke once and since then I can’t bear even an overheated room.”
“But it really isn’t very warm in here,” protested Penny. “I don’t notice it at all.”
“You might not but I am very sensitive to it.”
“Well, I’m glad your faint wasn’t caused by anything I said,” Penny declared, although she continued to regard the young woman dubiously. “I thought you seemed shocked by what I told you about the ring.”