His hands were clenched.

Halsey no sooner entered the room than he, too, fell upon his knees, lifting his face upward as if in silent and fervent prayer.
For a moment Susannah felt impelled to follow his example.

"But perhaps," she thought to herself, "cold water upon the patient's head, or a warm foot-bath--" Such suggestions caused her to resist the impulse to join the praying band, and, having resisted it, she suddenly experienced, as one feels a fresh breeze entering a close room, a strong, clear sense of knowledge that in this matter, at least, her husband was deluded, that the friends had better rise from their knees and betake themselves to ruder remedies.
Susannah had never learned to command; she had never even learned to advise.

She had too much reverence to speak aloud, disturbing those who were at prayer.

She stood hesitating, and then, in very low tones, whispered her belief in her husband's ear.
No doubt Halsey was shocked at his wife's unbelief; perhaps by the law of telepathy, for whose existence some psychical experts vouch, his thought penetrated the mind of the sensitive upon the bed.