She rose as she spoke and turned up the gas. Mrs. St. John laughed--a short, mirthless laugh. "Oh, yes, mamma, I tried all the usual old-woman remedies, but to no avail. My brain is too excited to yield to trifling measures. Give me something strong that will induce sleep directly." Her mother, looking at her keenly, saw that she was very pale, and her wide-open, dark eyes looked heavy with some speechless pain. "Dear, you are not ill, are you?" she inquired, going to a little medicine-case and taking out a small vial and wineglass. "No, mamma, only nervous and restless. Give me the opiate. It is all I need." "Did you enjoy the ball?" asked her mother, pouring out the drops with a steady hand. "Who was there?" "Oh, a number of people. Lord Dudley, for instance. You remember we visited his castle while we were abroad--that great show-place down in Cornwall. I did not tell him about it, though. He is very handsome and elegant. Aunt Egerton recommended him to me as a most desireable catch." She wanted to tell her mother that the sea had given up its dead--that she had seen Howard Templeton alive and in the flesh, but somehow she could not bring herself to utter his name; so she had rattled on at random. "Humph! I should think Mrs. Egerton had had enough of making matches for you," her mother muttered. "After the way Howard Templeton treated you she----" "Oh, mamma," said Xenie, interrupting her suddenly. "What?" said Mrs. Carroll. "He--he is here," said Xenie, with a gasp. "He--who, child?" asked her mother. "The man you named," said Xenie, in a low voice, as she took the wineglass into her shaking hand. "Not Howard Templeton?" said Mrs. Carroll, with such an air of blank astonishment that she looked almost ludicrous in her wide-frilled, white night-cap, and Xenie must have laughed if it had not been for that strange and heavy aching at her heart. As it was, she simply said: "Yes, mamma." "Then he wasn't shipwrecked, after all--I mean he wasn't drowned, after all. Somebody saved him, didn't they?" said Mrs. Carroll, in a good deal of astonishment. And again Xenie said, quietly: "Yes, mamma." "But how did it all happen? Or did you ask him?" inquired her mother, curiously. "He is coming here to-morrow. I dare say he will tell you all about it. I am going now. Good-night," said Xenie, draining the contents of the wineglass and setting it down. "Good-night, my darling," said Mrs. Carroll, looking after her a little disappointedly as she went slowly from the room. But Xenie did not look back, though she knew that her mother was burning with curiosity to know more of her meeting with Howard Templeton. She went to her luxurious room, crept shiveringly beneath the satin counterpane, and was soon lost to all mundane interest in the deep sleep induced by the drug she had taken. She slept long and uninterruptedly, and it was far into the day when she awoke and found her maid, Finette, waiting patiently to dress her.