"Thank you. How sweet of you! I didn't know there was anybody left to care. Then I was the only one? All the rest drowned?"
"I wish you wouldn't ask me," Jessie said, with a sob.
"No; I know now. I think I knew before. I—saw them dead, you know. Only, I couldn't quite believe it! To be left so alone as this!"
"Don't, please!"
"Poor old Hero!" She sighed, and closed her eyes. "Only you and I now, Hero! I wonder why I was saved."
She lay very still for a while, not as if sleeping. Her brows were knitted, and presently a few hot tears crept slowly out from the shut lids. Jessie sat watching sorrowfully. The light-hearted girl was having a glimpse of the darker side of life, which hitherto she had not known.
A step made her look up. Miss Perkins stood gazing at Mildred.
Jessie whispered under her breath, "She's been asking questions."
"And you've told her?"
"Yes."