Vashti's Fate — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

i ee el 2 ieee ot Pee tata, telly - ED © - <y eee << ~- - - 2 — — so ~ - — ~ — — — 4 - — - a ~ 22 A SHOCK. The sheriff was permitted to see him—ghostly, cold, and stiff—_there was some legal formula gone over with, and then the fosse comitatus took itself off. | It was rumored among people that he had taken his own life to escape the ignominious and terrible fate of a. murderer. However that was, the preparation for the funeral went on with remarkable expedition. The public was strictly excluded from all participation in the grave ceremonials thereof, and, like a erie incensed public, revenged itself _ by talking. There were mourning habiliments at Everleigh—a new mound in the little burial ground sacred to the Everleighs -—a somber cloud of mystery, seclusion, and gloom shroud- ing all approach to the unhappy subject, and the sad epi- sode was filed away among the records of the past. | ) Mrs. Everleigh from that bitter time became a confirmed invalid, and Margery Gresham grew several shades grim- — mer and sterner, and time went on. ’ ~ CHAPTER IIL. A SHOCK. Three years! Three sorrowful years had left their shad-— ows at Everleigh, and now ‘‘October’s leaf was brown and sere.’ The road and the pretty wild-wood paths were strewn with golden and russet-hued leaves, and here and there a little scentless, white-faced blossom smiled wanly on the still autumnal day. Now and then the fingers of eS the autumn winds fluttered a little coyly, and a shower of Seas gorgeous hues floated softly to the earth,