She felt as if she were slipping over the edge of the world.
"I can't--stand," she faltered weakly.
"No, no, _petite_! But naturally!" came the reassuring reply.

"Be seated, I beg.

Permit me to assist you!" Chris, being quite incapable of doing otherwise, yielded herself to the gentle insistence of an arm that encircled her.

She had an impression--fleeting at the time but returning to her later--of friendly dark eyes that looked for an instant into hers; and then, exactly how it happened she knew not, she was sitting propped against the rock, while all the world swam dizzily around her, and someone with sure, steady hands wound a bandage tightly and ever more tightly around her wounded foot.
"It hurts!" she murmured piteously.
"Have patience, mademoiselle! It will be better in a moment," came the quick reply.

"I shall not hurt you more than is necessary.