“Has nobody looked at the papers?” she asked, after a while. “I declare, how self-absorbed we are growing. Who knows but the world has, half of it, come to an end, over night?”
She picked up one of the papers—the one which contained the most startling head-lines, the most sickening sensations. Opening it, her eyes became riveted to the front page. Her face paled. She grew whiter, but no one noticed. When Marion looked up, the paper was falling from Salome’s hand, and she had fallen back in her chair—faint, speechless with terror.
With a cry, Marion sprang to her side; but Salome, by a tremendous effort, recovered herself.
“Read it,” she gasped, “and tell me what to do.”
Marion picked up the paper, and read:
HORRIBLE ACCIDENT ON THE ALBANY ROAD.
Thirteen Killed and Twenty Wounded.
Terrible Slaughter due to Carelessness.
Prominent Business Men of Boston and Shepardtown among the Injured.
Running her eye hastily down the column, Marion gathered that the night express had been crashed into by a heavy freight; that both trains had been thrown off the track; that many passengers had been killed, scalded, mangled or bruised.