He , unafraid , had taken her in and cared for her . On the morrow , the husband and father , having discovered the empty tomb , came to claim her . She refused to return to them and the case was carried to the court of law . The verdict given was that a woman who had been `` to burial borne '' and left for dead , who had been driven from her husband 's door and from her childhood home , `` must be adjudged as dead in law and fact , '' was no more daughter or wife , but was set free to form what new ties she would . The climax of the whole selection came in the line , `` The court pronounces the defendant -- DEAD ! '' and the Story Girl was wont to render it with such dramatic intensity and power that the veriest dullard among her listeners could not have missed its force and significance . She swept along through the poem royally , playing on the emotions of her audience as she had so often played on ours in the old orchard . Pity , terror , indignation , suspense , possessed her hearers in turn . In the court scene she surpassed herself . She was , in very truth , the Florentine judge , stern , stately , impassive . Her voice dropped into the solemnity of the all-important line , '' ` The court pronounces the defendant -- ' '' She paused for a breathless moment , the better to bring out the tragic import of the last word . `` DEAD , '' piped up Sara Ray in her shrill , plaintive little voice . The effect , to use a hackneyed but convenient phrase , can better be imagined than described . Instead of the sigh of relieved tension that should have swept over the audience at the conclusion of the line , a burst of laughter greeted it . The Story Girl 's performance was completely spoiled . She dealt the luckless Sara a glance that would have slain her on the spot could glances kill , stumbled lamely and impotently through the few remaining lines of her recitation , and fled with crimson cheeks to hide her mortification in the little corner that had been curtained off for a dressing-room . Mr. Perkins looked things not lawful to be uttered , and the audience tittered at intervals for the rest of the performance . Sara Ray alone remained serenely satisfied until the close of the concert , when we surrounded her with a whirlwind of reproaches . `` Why , '' she stammered aghast , `` what did I do ? I -- I thought she was stuck and that I ought to prompt her quick . ''
`` You little fool , she just XXXXX for effect , '' cried Felicity angrily .
bring fled greeted paused pronounces slain stuck stumbled surpassed thought