" Some other words followed but were caught
up and muffled. He fell forward, collapsing in a heap against the
desk. His head struck the wood and then he lay there perfectly
still.
Maggie could only dimly gather what happened after the sound of that
fall. There seemed to her to be a long and terrible silence during
which the clock continued remorselessly to strike. The Chapel
appeared to be a place of shadows as though the gas had suddenly
died to dim haloes; she was conscious that people moved about her,
that Aunt Anne had left them, and that Aunt Elizabeth was saying to
her again and again: "How terrible! How terrible! How terrible!"
Then as though it were some other person, Maggie found herself very
calmly speaking to Aunt Elizabeth.
"Are we to wait for Aunt Anne?" she whispered.
"Anne said we were to go home."
"Then let's go," whispered Maggie.
They went to the door, pushing, it seemed, through shadows who
whispered and forms that vanished as soon as one looked at them.
Out in the open air Maggie was aware that she was trembling from
head to foot, but a determined idea that she must get Aunt Elizabeth
home at once drove her like a goad.
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