Gypsy Breynton by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward

Gypsy threw down the gun, and threw up her hands with a curious quick motion, like one in suffocation, who was trying to find a voice; but she did not utter a sound.

There was an instant's awful stillness. In that instant, it seemed to Gypsy as if she had lived a great many years; in that instant, even Sarah's frightened cries were frozen.