Life seemed to have fled those beloved eyes; he could see Irma's motionless form lying there, the very apotheosis of Love.

He threw himself in a chair, and his pent-up nature gave way at last.
Mechanically he swallowed the glass of wine handed him by the watchful Leah, and yet before she had stolen behind a curtained alcove the room seemed to whirl around him.
He made a last desperate effort to rise, but reeled around unsteadily and then fell prone upon the tufted carpet.

A danger signal had aroused him at last, the sliding of heavy doors which cut off the room where the Magyar witch lay now helpless in the stupor of the criminal's deadliest narcotic.

And the frightened Leah Einstein fled away upstairs.

She only divined Fritz Braun's purpose as an intended robbery, or some audacious blackmail.