Roxy Hastings — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

ROXY HASTINGS. 1 the physician. “Give her air! throw open the windows, and let the room be cleared.” It was a mournful spectacle which presented itself to view. There were no signs of life, and on the purple face, up- — turned to the few beholders, lingered alook of agony and terror, which had been imprinted there while consciousness yet remained. They laid her tenderly upon the directors’ table, while another and a sadder word went forth from pale lips, gathering volume as it proceeded, and reverberating to the outermost edges of the street crowd, “Dead! Quite dead !” sin turned away in sadness, and not a few strong men wept. But the vital spark was not quite extinct. . A slight pul- sation was detected. The lungs played faintly, just stirring the feathery fibers that were held beneath the nostrils, and again the swaying multitude were thrilled with the words, shouted from the windows and door, and caught up and repeated by a hundred voices outside, while upraised arms and waving hats telegraphed the glad news to those who could not hear it spoken : “She is alive! she is alive!” Ah! there is much that is good in poor, weak human na- ture after all. How heart answers to heart when thus some isolated case of distress appeals directly to the sym- pathies, which would perhaps remain unmoved at the tid- ings of whole battalions swept down in battle. Miss Wilsey slowly recovered, and in an hour or so was assisted to a carriage and taken home by her overjoyed father. Yet evenin that moment of bliss Mr. Cashier Wilsey found it in his heart coldly to repulse the offered services of young Lee, whose delight at the rescue of Caro- line had surpassed expression, and who at any moment of her recent peril would unhesitatingly have laid down his life to save that which he had so thoughtlessly endangered. ‘“‘It is unnecessary, Mr. Lee, we shall do very well, and T think she will get over the shock sooner for not seeing you. Of course it was unintentional, and all that, but I still shudder to think what might have been the result of your folly.” Charley turned indignantly away from the cold-hearted man, yet with a saddened air. | “Oh, father! it was all my fault, not his,” said the daughter, eagerly, but faintly. “I asked him to lock me in.” GComicbooks (E (0)