She jumped up and hurried to his side, gasping:
“Oh, what is it, Edmund? Are you ill?” foreboding an apoplectic seizure.
Judge Van Lew struggled for speech, then blurted out, thickly:
“Read!”
Then she saw that he still clutched the newspaper in his hand, and snatching it wildly, she saw what had shocked him so—the sensational announcement of Viola’s elopement.
Mrs. Herman dropped heavily into a chair, almost fainting with the shock, and just then Eliza returned.
“I have knocked and knocked—and rattled and pounded—but she does not hear me! I’m afraid she must be dead, sir!” she exclaimed, fearfully.
The stricken man held up his hand, and muttered, harshly:
“Go!”
She retreated in alarm, leaving the door wide open in her dismay, and the next moment her voice echoed back to them from the hall in tones of glad surprise: