"Why don't she speak ?" he asked.
"She can't, my dear; you must come away and leave her.

She's better off, my darling--she's _dead_." Then there was a cry of grief sprung up from the heart of that orphan boy, that rang in those women's ears for long years after; it was the first outbreak of a loving childish heart pierced with life's bitterest grief--a mother's loss.
The two children were kindly taken into the house of some benevolent neighbour, as the servants had all fled none knew whither.

Little Em was in a profound stupor--the result of cold and terror, and it was found necessary to place her under the care of a physician.
After they had all gone, an inquest was held by the coroner, and a very unsatisfactory and untruthful verdict pronounced--one that did not at all coincide with the circumstances of the case, but such a one as might have been expected where there was a great desire to screen the affair from public scrutiny..