Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/379

Rh some way in dislocating it. I told her to look out for that rock, but you know that she never will take advice. I am surprised that she felt it so much, though.”

“There was no pretending about it,” interposed the young man. “She certainly was in great pain.”

“A little thing like that often is harder to bear,” added Julia, “than something that seems much larger. Frances must feel very grateful to you for supporting her in the water so long.”

“Strange as it may seem,” replied Brenda, laughing, “she seems even more grateful to you. She thinks that, without you, we both should have drowned.”

“Oh, dear, no! If I had n’t been there, you would have found some way to climb up that rock, sharp and  slippery though it looked.”

“Oh, I can’t bear to think of it!” and Brenda shuddered. “You cannot imagine how helpless I felt for a moment. I was afraid that you would n’t be able to reach us. How did you manage to do it? You have always seemed so frightened in deep water.”

“I can’t tell how it happened,” responded Julia. “I just seemed to be carried along, and I forgot to be afraid. Do they think that Frances will have much trouble with her foot?”

“She won’t be able to use it for some time, and she is in a rather nervous state. But every one is thankful that it wasn’t worse.”

“Can’t we talk of something more cheerful?” asked Arthur Weston. “We ’ve all been rescued, and no lives