His Other Wife: A Novel — page 67: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AMY'S DISCOVERIES. 59 the dear departed a few hours sooner. Under all the cir- cumstances, and the extreme heat of the weather, the body oughtn't to stand out of the ground longer than to-night. A night fun’ral’s a solemn and beautiful thing, sir—sight more interesting than a day fun’ral.” Again Mrs. Rowe wiped her widowed eyes and leered affectionately at the calm, sad face of the widower. There was no response in it,to her tender sympathy. It was agreed that the body should at once be coffined, and, in the early morning, removed to the small chapel in the cemetery until the preparations for its interment were properly and decorously completed. Mr. Croft, accompanied by the widow and her two daughters, attended, in a close carriage, the slow progress of the hearse that bore the remains of Rachel Croft to the chapel. | Old Amy refused the permission given her to take the seat by the carriage driver, and instead she locked herself up in Mrs. Croft's bedroom. It must be at least two hours before the escort could return from the cemetery. A few minutes only had elapsed since the procession turned the street corner on its slow way, when Amy emerged from the basement hall of the house, and, at her most rapid gait, took her course by the shortest route to a small shop in the suburbs of the city. The sun was already very hot when she reached a low awning of sail- cloth that was stretched in front of this shop. Beneath the awning, upon a bench, sat the lean, lank Eomicbooks: (E(0) =|