"I went out at twenty minutes past ten. I went to have a tooth extracted. That was forty minutes."
"Did she speak to you when you went out?"
"Yes—she spoke to me."
"What did she say?"
Marshall Avery made no reply.
"Were there any symptoms of this heart-failure then? Out with it!—No. Never mind. It's evident enough."
The clock on the mantel struck the quarter before twelve.
"She has been as she is an hour and a quarter," said Dr. Thorne. His voice and manner were disheartened. He stood a moment pondering, with a dark face.
"Do you call her dead?" entreated Avery. It seemed to him that he had reached the limit of endurance. He would pull the worst down on his head at one toppling blow.
"No!" cried the physician, in a deep, reverberating tone.