"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.