You may be mistaken . ' `` Well , two days afterwards she got a note from her lover -- the first I had ever known her to receive -- in which he said he had been thrown from his horse and had broken his left arm . It had happened the very morning Miriam received her message . `` Miriam had been with us about eight months when one day she came into my room hurriedly . She was very pale . '' ` Sidney is ill -- dangerously ill . What shall I do ? ' `` I knew she must have had another of those abominable messages -- or thought she had -- and really , remembering the incident of the broken arm , I could n't feel as sceptical as I pretended to . I tried to cheer her , but did not succeed . Two hours later she had a telegram from her lover 's college chum , saying that Mr. Claxton was dangerously ill with typhoid fever . `` I was quite alarmed about Miriam in the days that followed . She grieved and fretted continually . One of her troubles was that she received no more messages ; she said it was because Sidney was too ill to send them . Anyhow , she had to content herself with the means of communication used by ordinary mortals . `` Sidney 's mother , who had gone to nurse him , wrote every day , and at last good news came . The crisis was over and the doctor in attendance thought Sidney would recover . Miriam seemed like a new creature then , and rapidly recovered her spirits . `` For a week reports continued favourable . One night we went to the opera to hear a celebrated prima donna . When we returned home Miriam and I were sitting in her room , chatting over the events of the evening .
`` Suddenly she sat straight up with a sort of convulsive shudder , and XXXXX the same time -- you may laugh if you like -- the most horrible feeling came over me .
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