"What?" I ejaculated, in the most lively terror; "what?"
"Ah!" she said, "perchance thou didst not know. Learn, my Holly, learn:
there lies--there lies my lost Kallikrates. Kallikrates, who has come
back to me at last, as I knew he would, as I knew he would;" and she
began to sob and to laugh, and generally to conduct herself like any
other lady who is a little upset, murmuring "Kallikrates, Kallikrates!"
"Nonsense," thought I to myself, but I did not like to say it; and,
indeed, at that moment I was thinking of Leo's life, having forgotten
everything else in that terrible anxiety. What I feared now was that he
should die while she was "carrying on."
"Unless thou art able to help him, Ayesha," I put in, by way of a
reminder, "thy Kallikrates will soon be far beyond thy calling. Surely
he dieth even now."
"True," she said, with a start. "Oh, why did I not come before! I am
unnerved--my hand trembles, even mine--and yet it is very easy. Here,
thou Holly, take this phial," and she produced a tiny jar of pottery
from the folds of her garment, "and pour the liquid in it down his
throat.
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