I had never known her so silent before; it seemed almost as if this dreadful accident had struck her dumb.

I ought to have spoken to her, perhaps, but there was something in her face that daunted me; and, besides, the fever of anxiety I was in began to dry up my lips, as if they would never be able to shape any words again.

I was still tormented by that frightful apprehension of the past night, that she would die without my knowing it--die without saying one word to clear up the awful mystery of this blow, and set the suspicions at rest forever which I still felt whenever my eyes fell on the end of the old cravat.
At last the doctor came back.
"I think you may safely clear your mind of any doubts to which that bit of stuff may have given rise," he said.

"She was, as you supposed, detained late by her employers, and she fainted in the work-room.

They most unwisely and unkindly let her go home alone, without giving her any stimulant, as soon as she came to her senses again.