"Have you sent word to the ambassador?" he asked the general almost angrily.
"No, not yet."
"Then make haste, pray; they must telegraph to Vienna."
"Yes, yes," said Von Klinger soothingly, "I will see to it at once. Would you be good enough to stay till I return?" he added to Truyn and he hurried away.
For a few minutes not a word was spoken, then Sterzl began:
"Do you know how it all happened, Count?" Truyn bowed. "And you, Zini?" asked Cecil, looking sadly at the girl's white face. "I know that you are suffering--that is all I want to know," she replied.
"Oh! Zini...." Sterzl struggled for breath and held out his hand to Zinka, then he went on in a hoarse and hardly audible voice: "Zini ... Butterfly ... it was all my doing ... I have spoilt your life ... I did it...."
She tried to stop him: "You must not excite yourself," she said, leaning over him tenderly; "forget all that till you are better--I know that you have always loved me and that you would have fetched the stars from heaven for me if you could have reached them."
He shuddered convulsively: "No, Zini, no ... you might have had the stars," he said in a panting staccato; "the finest stars. Sempaly was not to blame ... only I ... the prince had agreed ... but I ... I forgot myself ... and I spoilt it all ... oh, a drink of water, Zini, please!..."
She gave him the water and he drank it greedily; but when she gently tried to stop his mouth with her hand he pushed it away, and went on eagerly, though with a fast failing voice: "No ... I must tell you ... it is a weight upon my soul. There, in my desk ... Count ... in the little pocket on the left ... there is a letter for Zinka.--Give it her...."