Max Pemberton

“ He was listening for a beat of the heart—a thing I was sure he would never hear. Five minutes, perhaps, he bent over the little figure of the woman whose laughter had been music to every soul she knew. Then he rose like a man who has done all possible. ”

“ When at last my master opened his lips, his voice was like a whisper of a man in a vault.
"Run for help and a doctor," said he. "God grant we are dreaming!"
He staggered out with me to the door, and our cries brought the old hag from the porter's lodge. She had a lantern in her hand, and she and my master went back to the studio together. When I returned in ten minutes' time—a doctor at my heels—I found the two together chafing the dead woman's hands, and trying to force brandy between her lips. ”

“ I was shivering like a boy in a swimming-bath two minutes after the door closed upon us, and I don't believe Nicky was any better.
"The blazes of a place it is, for sure," said he. "To think that she lives alone in such a hovel as this. It can't be for want of the money; they say she's earning twenty pounds a week, and will earn more. ”