"
"And now what else?"
"I found the door unlocked."
"That was done by Mrs. Jeffrey?"
"Yes, but I did not think of her then."
"And you went in?"
"Yes; it was all dark, but I felt my way till I came to the gilded
pillars."
"Why did you go there?"
"Because I felt - I knew - if he were anywhere in that house he
would be there!"
"And why did you stop?"
Her voice rose above its usual quiet pitch in shrill protest:
"You know! you know! I heard a pistol-shot from within, then a
fall. I don't remember anything else. They say I went wandering
about town. Perhaps I did; it is all a blank to me - everything is
a blank till the policeman said that my sister was dead and I
learned for the first time that the shot I had heard in the Moore
house was not the signal of his death, but hers. Had I been myself
when at that library door," she added, after a moment of silence,
"I would have rushed in at the sound of that shot and have received
my sister's dying breath"
"Cora!" The cry was from Mr. Jeffrey, and seemed to be quite
involuntary. "In the weeks during which we have been kept from
speaking together I have turned all these events over in my mind
till I longed for any respite, even that of the grave. But in all
my thinking I never attributed this motive to your visit here.
Pages:
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332