"More than thy husband?"
Mariska reflected for a moment, and then, instead of replying, hugged the child still closer to her bosom and imprinted a kiss upon its forehead.
"Wert thou ever a mother?" she asked Azrael in her turn.
"Never," stammered the odalisk, and involuntarily her bosom heaved beneath a sigh.
It was plain from the face of Mariska how much she pitied this poor woman. Azrael perceived the look, and it wounded her that she should be pitied.
"Dost thou not know that both of you must die?" she asked with a darkened countenance.
"I am ready."
"And art thou not terrified at the thought? They will strangle thy child with a silken cord, and hang it dead upon thy breast, and then they will strangle thee likewise, and put you both in the grave, in the cold earth."
"We shall see each other in a better world," said Mariska with fervent devotion.
"Where?" inquired the astounded Azrael.