A Wedding Trip by Emilia Pardo Bazán

A few days after she had made her confession, Pilar expired. Her death was almost sweet, and altogether different from what they had expected it would be, inasmuch as it was painless. A more severe fit of coughing than usual interrupted her respiration and the flame of life went out, as the flame goes out in a lamp when the oil is exhausted. Lucía was alone with the sick girl at the time, supporting her while she was coughing, when suddenly dropping her head forward she expired. The horrible malady, consumption, has so many different phases and aspects that, while some of its victims feel life slowly ebbing away from them hour by hour, others fall into eternity as suddenly as the wild animal falls into the snare. Lucía, who had never seen any one die before, did not suppose that this was anything more than a deep swoon; she could not think that the spirit abandoned, without a greater struggle and sharper pangs, its mortal tenement. She ran out of the room calling for assistance.

Sardiola was the first to come to the bedside in answer to her cries, and shaking his head he said, "It is all over. " Miranda and Perico came shortly afterward; they were both in the hotel at the time, it being eleven o'clock, the hour at which they left the bed for the breakfast table. Miranda raised his eyebrows when he received the intelligence and setting his voice in a solemn key, said: