text:  Nay hours and hours after she was gone for ever--after the undertakers had commenced their hideous preparations--even while she lay stretched before him white and cold as marble he persisted that life might be still recalled; and but for the better discrimination of those around him would have insisted on attempts at resuscitation calculated only to disturb almost sacrilegiously the sound peace of the dead! I was one of the first to learn the heart-rending news of this beloved being's untimely end; for my old woman having asked permission to remain with her through the night (explaining the exigency of the case ) I could not forbear hurrying to the house as soon as it was day in the hope of hearing she was a happy mother