It was bad enough that her presence should add so greatly to the dangers besetting her friends; it was far worse that she should have fainted at the very moment when such weakness might well prove fatal to them.
Why did she faint?
Ah! A lively blush chased the pallor from her cheeks, and a few strenuous heartbeats restored animation to her limbs.
Of course, in thinking that she had yielded solely to the stress of surcharged emotions, Iris was mistaken.

What she really needed was food.

A young woman of perfect physique, and dowered with the best of health, does not collapse into unconsciousness because a young man embraces her, and each at the same moment makes the blissful discovery that the wide world contains no other individual of supreme importance.
Iris's great-grandmother might have "swooned" under such circumstances--not so Iris, who fainted simply because of the strain imposed by failure to eat the queer fare provided by De Sylva and his associates.

She hardly realized how hungry she was until the girl handed her the bowl, which contained a couple of eggs beaten up in milk, while small quantities of rum and sugar-cane juice made the compound palatable.
"Bom!" said the girl, "bebida, senhora!" It certainly was good, and the senhora drank it with avidity, the mixture being excellent diet for one who had eaten nothing except an over-ripe banana during thirty hours.

Indeed, it would be no exaggeration to extend that period considerably.