Vashti's Fate — page 212: what you’re looking at

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

OE I eae GOmiIGc TRIBULATION. 207 I know he was—so it is I who have killed her all the same. ” He dropped her hands and walked to the door to con- ceal the emotion that was struggling over his countenance, and she passed silently on to her own room, where, having exchanged her traveling-robes for her usual home dress, she came out, pale asa statue of Niobe, but collected in her demeanor, and firmly determined to go to her mother. It was in vain that the good doctor, fearing the effects of so frightful a scene upon her in her present unnatural state of mind, opposed her approaching Mrs. Everleigh. She bade him feel her pulse, and assured him, with singularly quiet tones, that she was as calm as she ever was in her life. ‘‘Your pulse does not say so. Your nervous system is in an awful state of tension. How do you feel bodily?” ‘Well, except a sort of numbness over me that seems as if it would never let me feel mental or physical pain again. ” ‘And which is one of the premonitions of the family doom,” the physician said, inwardly, as he looked anxiously at her. : ‘«My head was aching yesterday, but I feel no pain now, although I have not slept for two nights and days,” she added, with a faint smile, meant to reassure him of her perfect fitness for her undertaking. ‘‘You must retire to your room and try to sleep,’ Doc- tor Gracie said. ‘‘I don’t want another patient on my hands. I shall give you a strong narcotic and send you to bed. ” She shook her head. Just then the door of Mrs. Everleigh’s reom opened and some one came out. Through the open door and down 300 cS (e(o)