the linen stood the words, "For the charity school."

Muller began to feel a strong sympathy for the writer of these
notices. She showed an orderly, almost pedantic, character,
mingled with generosity of heart. He turned leaf after leaf until
he finally came to the words, written in intentionally heavy letters,
"How I was murdered."

Muller's head sank down lower over these mysterious words, and his
eyes flew through the writing that followed. It was quite a
different writing here. The hand that penned these words must have
trembled in deadly terror. Was it terror of coming death, foreseen
and not to be escaped? or was it the trembling and the terror of an
overthrown brain? It was undoubtedly, in spite of the difference,
the same hand that had penned the first pages of the book. A few
characteristic turns of the writing were plainly to be seen in both
parts of the story. But the ink was quite different also. The
first pages had been written with a delicate violet ink, the later
leaves were penned with a black ink of uneven quality, of the kind
used by poor people who write very seldom. The words of this later
portion of the book were blurred in many places, as if the writer
had not been able to dry them properly before she turned the leaves.
She therefore had had neither blotting paper nor sand at her disposal.

And then the weird title!

Was it written at the dictation of insanity? or did A. L. know,
while she wrote it, that it was too late for any help to reach her?
Did she see her doom approaching so clearly that she knew there was
no escape?