in about the
same condition in which it had been first found.

The stewardess treated the stranger with the utmost kindness and the
tenderest solicitude, and, at length, the one who had thus been so
strangely rescued came out of that senselessness into which she had
been thrown by the loss of the hope of rescue. On reviving she told a
brief story. She said that she was English, that her name was Lorton,
and that she had been traveling to Marseilles in her own yacht. That
the day before, on awaking, she found the yacht full of water and
abandoned. She had been a day and a night alone in the vessel,
without either food or shelter. She had suffered much, and was in
extreme prostration, both of mind and body. But her strongest desire
was to get to Naples, for her sister was there in ill health, and she
had been making the journey to visit her.

[Illustration: Windham Tenderly And Reverently Raised Her.]

Windham and Obed Chnte heard this very strange narrative from the
stewardess, and talked it over between themselves, considering it in
all its bearings. The opinion of each of them was that there had been
foul play somewhere. But then the question arose: why should there
have been foul play upon an innocent young girl like this? She was an
English lady, evidently of the higher classes; her look was certainly
foreign, but her English accent was perfect. In her simple story she
seemed to have concealed nothing. The exquisite beauty of the young
girl had filled the minds of both of these men with a strong desire
to find out the cause of her wrongs, and to avenge her. But how to do
so was the difficulty. Windham had important business in England
which demanded immediate attention, and would hardly allow him to
delay more than a few days. Obed Chute, on the contrary, had plenty
of time, but did not feel like trying to intrude himself on her
confidence. Yet her distress and desolation had an eloquence which
swayed both of these men from their common purposes, and each
determined to postpone other designs, and do all that was possible
for her.

In spite of an hour's delay in rescuing Miss Lorton, the steamer
arrived at Marseilles at nearly the usual time, and the question
arose, what was to be done with the one that they had rescued?
Windham could do nothing; but Obed Chute could do something, and did
do it. The young lady was able now to sit up in the saloon, and here
it was that Obed Chute waited upon her.

"Have you