"Can it mean anything serious? Can anything be the matter, Mr. Greyman? Is anything wrong?"
It was a trifle early, he thought. She might have had another half hour or so. But this was a good beginning, or rather a fitting end.
"And you have known this all day?" she said reproachfully when he told her the truth. "How unkind of you not to tell me!"
"Unkind!" he echoed. "What possible good----"
"I should have known it was the last day--I--I should have made the--the most of it."
He felt glad of his own impatience of the sentimentality as he turned away, for in truth the look on her face hit him hard. It sent him to pace up and down the outer roof resting till the time for action came. Then he had a whispered consultation with Tara regarding the dose of raw opium safe for a child of Sonny's years.
"Are you sure that is not too much?" he asked anxiously.
Tara looked at the little black pellet she was rolling gravely. "It is large, Huzoor, but it is for life or death; and if it was the Huzoor's own son I would give no less."
Once more the remembrance of the still little morsel in Zora's tinsel veil brought an odd compunction; the very possibility of this strange child's death roused greater pain than that certainty had done. He felt unnerved at the responsibility; but Kate, looking up as he rejoined her, held out her hand without a tremor.
"Give it me, please," she said, and her voice was steady also; "he will take it best from me. I have some sugar here."