Then he
called upon Margaret. He called her name three times. In the uproar Susie
could scarcely hear. Terror had seized her again, but in her confusion
she remembered his command, and she dared not move.
'Margaret, Margaret, Margaret.'
Without a pause between, as quickly as a stone falls to the ground, the
din which was all about them ceased. There was no gradual diminution. But
at one moment there was a roaring hurricane and at the next a silence so
complete that it might have been the silence of death.
And then, seeming to come out of nothingness, extraordinarily, they heard
with a curious distinctness the sound of a woman weeping. Susie's heart
stood still. They heard the sound of a woman weeping, and they recognized
the voice of Margaret. A groan of anguish burst from Arthur's lips, and
he was on the point of starting forward. But quickly Dr Porhoet put out
his hand to prevent him. The sound was heartrending, the sobbing of a
woman who had lost all hope, the sobbing of a woman terrified. If Susie
had been able to stir, she would have put her hands to her ears to shut
out the ghastly agony of it.
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