A Social Meteor — page 303: what you’re looking at

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

A SOCIAL METHOR., 293 me on the balcony I think I must have stood there for hours, suffering such torture of mind as I had not believed it in my power to endure. They told me dinner was waiting, but I scarcely heard them. A man wished to see me on busi- ness, but I did not even answer. At last a clock struck eleven, and I started up, deciding to go to bed for a few hours’ rest. “Just at that moment Annette rushed out, wringing her hands, and uttering all sorts of exclamations in her native tongue. I asked her what the matter was, but as she was too excited to speak English, and I never could converse in French, I seemed in a fair way to remain in ignorance, until I had forced a little brandy down her throat. “Then she managed to gasp out her story. She said that her mistress had not gone to dinner and had even refused the slight refreshment she had brought to her room, thinking she might be hungry later on. “About ten o’clock she had gone into her boudoir to prepare her for bed, but she was not there. She went away and returned in half an hour, but still she did not appear.. Then, think- ing she might perhaps be ill, the girl rapped on her bedroom door. No answer. She turned the knob and went in, to find the chamber in perfect order, but vacant, Knowing that her mistress Gomichbooks (E@)