Then she came to herself completely, and was astonished to feel the pain
in her head, which had been bandaged, and to see a strange stewardess
sitting by her with a cup of beef-tea in her hand.

"Where am I? Is it a dream?" she asked.

"Drink this and I will tell you," answered the stewardess.

Benita obeyed, for she felt hungry, then repeated her question.

"Your steamer was shipwrecked," said the stewardess, "and a great many
poor people were drowned, but you were saved in a boat. Look, there are
your clothes; they were never in the water."

"Who carried me into the boat?" asked Benita in a low voice.

"A gentleman, they say, Miss, who had wrapped you in a blanket and put a
lifebelt on you."

Now Benita remembered everything that happened before the darkness
fell--the question to which she had given no answer, the young couple
who stood flirting by her--all came back to her.

"Was Mr. Seymour saved?" she whispered, her face grey with dread.

"I dare say, Miss," answered the stewardess evasively. "But there is no
gentleman of that name aboard this ship."

At that moment the doctor came in, and him, too, she plied with
questions. But having learned the story of Robert's self-sacrifice from