The Argosy, Vol. 5

# Anne Hereford

This serial installment, by the author of East Lynne, depicts the aftermath of a shooting death. Philip King, the young heir, is shot dead in the woods near an estate. A laborer named Duff brings news of the murder to the household, where the body is laid on the hall table. Mr. Edwin Barley, who witnessed the incident, tells the surgeon Mr. Lowe and clergyman Mr. Martin that Philip King identified his shooter with dying words: George Heneage. Barley expresses certainty it was deliberate murder, though the surgeon initially suspects accident. Mrs. Edwin Barley becomes hysterical upon seeing the body; she subsequently disappears into the fog without bonnet or outdoor clothing, her destination unknown. Police officers arrive mounted on horseback. The narrative includes domestic servants' concerns about dinner preparation disrupted by the crisis, and the narrator—a young girl named Miss Hereford—witnesses events from a corner of the hall, where she had been pushed aside.