"To save you."
"I am lost. Saved, rather," she added; "what should I do in this world?"
Spasms seized her; she stretched out her arms; the blood choked her. "Air!" she gasped.
Tika flew to open all the windows, and her mistress saw her.
"Good-by, Tika," she said; "you see that he was not defeated, that he was not dead! We shall never talk of him again."
The girl wept, with her face buried in her hands. Fatkoura raised her eyes to the Prince.
"Let me look at you," she said; "it is so long since my eyes have mirrored your image. How handsome you are, my beloved!—You know," she went on, turning to the doctor, "he is my husband. He came to set me free; but Tosa would have outraged me, and I killed myself."
She spoke in a dull, broken voice, growing weaker and weaker. Her eyes opened wide; a waxen pallor over-spread her face.
"You will speak of me to your father, Iwakura," she resumed; "he loved me well! I told him that I should never see the castle again. I was almost happy there. I saw the room where you were born, your baby dresses—Ah! I have loved you fondly!"
She gasped; drops of sweat stood on her brow. She tore the bandage from her wound.