Father is as regular as the sun, but there's some delay on the way, perhaps." A sharp ring interrupted her, and a minute after Hannah came in with a letter.
"It's one of them horrid telegraph things, mum," she said, handling it as if she was afraid it would explode and do some damage.
At the word 'telegraph', Mrs.March snatched it, read the two lines it contained, and dropped back into her chair as white as if the little paper had sent a bullet to her heart.

Laurie dashed downstairs for water, while Meg and Hannah supported her, and Jo read aloud, in a frightened voice...
Mrs.March: Your husband is very ill.

Come at once.
S.

HALE Blank Hospital, Washington.
How still the room was as they listened breathlessly, how strangely the day darkened outside, and how suddenly the whole world seemed to change, as the girls gathered about their mother, feeling as if all the happiness and support of their lives was about to be taken from them.
Mrs.March was herself again directly, read the message over, and stretched out her arms to her daughters, saying, in a tone they never forgot, "I shall go at once, but it may be too late.

Oh, children, children, help me to bear it!" For several minutes there was nothing but the sound of sobbing in the room, mingled with broken words of comfort, tender assurances of help, and hopeful whispers that died away in tears.