“But surely you have some remedy?—something that will bring her to? Gott in Himmel! you don’t tell me that she will never see me, or speak to me again!”
“No; cocaine is one of the most powerful drugs—the greatest curse in our pharmacopoeia. It is better that she should go like this. Even if she were to survive for a week, she would be a mere inanimate shadow.”
“Oh, my poor Flora, my heart’s joy! You must not go; you shall not leave me without one word!” And Herr Krauss tumbled down upon his knees and sobbed stertorously.
The doctor, who was surveying him with frigid amazement, suddenly turned and, seizing Sophy by the arm, said:
“You can do no good here now; this is no place for you.”
Leading her to the door he closed it inexorably behind her.
Half an hour later she was joined by Lily, her round face wet with tears.
“All is over now, Miss Sahib. My missis always so good to me—my missis done die.”
CHAPTER XXXV
MUNG BAW LIES LOW
In some mysterious manner the cause of Mrs. Krauss’s death was hushed up; there was no inquest, and the announcement in the Rangoon Gazette merely stated: “On the 8th inst., Flora, the beloved wife of Herr Karl Krauss, suddenly, of heart failure.”