The Argosy — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

Number Twenty-five. 63 manager of the hotel, and one of the leading doctors of the place, and beyond them, Mr. Loseby’s ghastly face. ‘They all stopped in a little cluster at the door of No. 25, and then I saw that two of the hotel servants were carrying something between them on a mattress. Another doctor and some of the chambermaids were following. “What has happened?” I asked the first personI met. It was the disagreeable looking chambermaid who was hurrying along with a jug of hot water. ‘A lady has fallen over the edge of the wall and killed herself. The coastguard found her, and brought her home,” she answered curtly. There was a wet track along the gay new carpet, and up the stairs. It led along over the encaustic tiles of the hall to the door, a trail of dripping garments and trampling feet. The coastguard stood on the steps and another man—a workman in Sunday clothes—beside him. ‘¢ He saw her first,” said the coastguard, “and gave me a call. The water was just up to her face as she lay ”—-— He broke off, for Mr. Loseby pressed through the throng of idlers in the doorway and dis- appeared within the room. A few minutes later the doctor emerged in close consultation with the manager. “ Fatal? Not a bit of it! She'll be all right after a night’s sleep. The fall wouldn’t kill her. A big stone had got loose and rolled after her, and that stunned her. If she had been left ten minutes or so longer she would have been drowned, I suppose; as it is, beyond some bruises and a possible shock to the nerves, she will be none the worse. Youkeep that corridor quiet. None of the other rooms are occupied, I hear? Very well. Keep them empty for the present. I'll be round early to-morrow.” The manager interviewed me a little later in the evening and offered me a larger and very much better room in exchange for mine, but I resolutely declined to move. I had begun a sketch from the window and wanted to finish it. He didn’t persist. I found heavy curtains hung over the end of the corridor and over the room door when I went up that night, and betook myself noiselessly to bed. I met the doctor, with whom I was slightly acquainted, next morn- ing, after his visit. ‘‘ Doing very well,” was his reply to my inquiries. ‘More frightened than hurt. Her husband seems needlessly fidgety. Talks of having further advice—of course I can’t object—but there is no real occasion.” | ‘These country doctors!” said Loseby, with much contempt, when I congratulated him on his wife’s escape. ‘‘ What chances can they have of studying the more complicated cases of nerve disease. It is my wife’s 7nd I fear for: such a shock may unhinge it utterly. She has been terrified out of her senses, and if her father comes down while she is in this state, I declare I believe it will kill her.” ‘“‘ He is coming ?” I asked. ECOnnicloooks (GO An