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Holmes, Mary Jane, 1825-1907

"Bessie's Fortune A Novel"

Go, father."
She was on her knees before him now, clasping his feet, and pleading
piteously. But she might as well have talked to a stone.
"Give himself up to the hangman? Never!" he answered. And she was no
daughter of his to desire his death, as she evidently did. She could
stay there in the corner with her dog, as great a sneak as herself! He
did not wish her services; he could manage alone, he said, angrily, as
he turned from her and entered his room, where she heard him moving out
his bed, and knew that he was taking up a portion of the floor.
Then there came over her a great blackness, and a buzzing in her head
like the sound of many bees in the summer time, and she fell upon her
face, unconscious of everything. How long she lay thus she did not know,
but when she came to herself again there was no light in the room except
that made by the dying fire upon the hearth and Rover was licking her
cold face and hands, and now and then uttering a low whine as if in
token of sympathy. The body was still upon the floor near her, but from
her father's room there came a sound, the import of which she understood
perfectly.


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