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226 her hand on the colonel's eyes, softly closed the lids.

"He won't never speak no more, my dear," she said gently.

Viola looked at her with a wild and terrified face.

"Oh, no, Mrs. Seymour!" she cried. "Oh, no—oh, not that! We were just going away—we were going home! Oh, it could n't be that; it's too cruel, it's too unnecessary. He wanted so to go! There was no harm in it. Why could n't they have waited till we 'd got home?"

She raised her hands to her head in a gesture of dazed despair, and fell senseless into Mrs. Seymour's arms.