Kabanata Kabanata 30 · BURNED PAPER

. BURNED PAPER

“I could have better spared a better man.”

Henry IV.

I do not think I called immediately for help. The awful shock of

this discovery, coming as it did at the very moment life and hope

were strongest within me; the sudden downfall which it brought of

all the plans based upon this woman’s expected testimony; and,

worst of all, the dread coincidence between this sudden death

and the exigency in which the guilty party, whoever it was, was

supposed to be at that hour were much too appalling for instant

action. I could only stand and stare at the