Gratia's Trials — page 138: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

GRATIA'S TRIALS. — 129 Mrs. Falconer had sunk back against her pillows, deathly pale.” : | ‘*T_] don’t know,” she said, in accents of terror. ‘‘ Go and see. And, Decker, send my maid. Iam sure there must be some frightful mistake.” | Miss Falconer only staid to twist her hair up in a loose coil, and to belt down her dressing-gown, and so it happened that she entered the library directly after the doctor, who had been hastily summoned from his residence on the next block. ‘«Stand back !” she said, authoritatively, to the crowd of servants. ‘‘ What is it, Robert, tell me!” ‘You had best go back,” said Robert, sharply. He’s dead, and you can’t bring him back to life. This is no place for you women. ” ‘‘Tam not one of your nervous kind,” said Alberta, con- temptuously. ‘‘ Doctor, you, atleast, are not half crazed with terror. What is it all about?” Dr. Hayley had knelt down on the carpet, beside the sofa on which they had laid the corpse of Ralph Miller, and was going through the usual formula of feeling the pulse, which had long ceased to beat, examining the features, and listening for any possible indications of dormant vitality, Presently he rose and looked down upon the corpse for an instant, with a puzzled face. Then, stooping over, he tore open the satin vest which Mr. Miller habitually wore, and ex- amined the pulseless heart. ‘‘'There has been some foul play here,” he uttered, in ac- cents of the extremest horror and dismay. ‘Foul play!” gasped Alberta, while her brother stood, pale and silent, at the side of the sofa, ‘‘Oh, doctor, you are mis- taken, surely !” ‘*T am not mistaken,” said Dr. Hayley, in a low tone. ‘‘At first I was tempted to imagine that his death proceeded from some natural cause; but the hand of Nature never opened the Eomicbooks (eo