She thought at first that her aunt was ill, and was just about to call out to know if she should go for the doctor, all her grievances being forgotten in this evidently worse stress, when her mother fairly screamed again, stooping over her sister, and trying to raise her.
"Eva Tenny, you tell me this minute what the matter is." Then Eva raised herself on one elbow, and disclosed a face distorted with wrath and woe, like a mask of tragedy.
"He's gone! he's gone!" she shrieked out, in an awful, shrill voice, which was like the note of an angry bird.

"He's gone!" "For God's sake, not--Jim ?" "Yes, he's gone! he's gone! Oh, my God! my God! he's gone!" All at once the little Amabel appeared, slipping past Ellen silently.

She stood watching her mother.

She was vibrating from head to foot as if strung on wires.

She was not crying, but she kept catching her breath audibly; her little hands were twitching in the folds of her frock; she winked rapidly, her lids obscuring and revealing her eyes until they seemed a series of blue sparks.