"Great heavens, Captain! What has happened?"
I drew him from the saloon.
"My poor friend, haste, if you wish to see Mariana alive. She was at her window; she saw Stamm gallop past. Stamm being alive, it followed that you were dead. She uttered a cry, and fell. From that moment she has never opened her eyes."
"Oh, my presentiments!" cried Zodomirsky, "my presentiments!" and he rushed hatless and without his sabre, into the street.
On the staircase of Mlle. Ravensky's house he met the doctor, who was coming down.
"Doctor," he cried, stopping him, "she is better, is she not?"
"Yes," he answered, "better, because she suffers no more."
"Dead!" murmured Zodomirsky, growing white, and supporting himself against the wall. "Dead!"
"I always told her, poor girl! that, having a weak heart, she must avoid all emotion—"
But Zodomirsky had ceased to listen. He sprang up the steps, crossed the hall and the saloon, calling like a madman: