* * * * *

Thanks to certain by no means homoeopathic doses of the Latin
grammar in my early years, I was able to gather the meaning of
these elegiac effusions, and when the last stanza embodying poor
Pussy's posthumous wail was discovered to be none other than the
despairing death-cry of the "infelix Dido" as immortalized by
Virgil--the one step from the sublime to the ridiculous seemed to
have been passed.

I looked at Nannette, and Nannette looked at me, and we burst
into silent but irrepressible laughter. Nannette was the first to
recover herself.

"We ought to be ashamed of ourselves," said she severely: "Honest
grief is always respectable; and a fitting tribute to departed
worth, no more than what is due from the survivors. I have no
doubt but that Tommy and Pussy were most esteemed members of
society, and that their loss has left an aching void in the
family of which they were the youngest and most petted darlings.
I have heard the history of this monument, and the village that
has grown up around it, and if you will comport yourself more as
a Christian being should in the presence of a solemn memorial, I
will relate to you the interesting facts in my possession."

I immediately signified a due contrition and full purpose of
amendment; when Nannette continued, still speaking with the
gravity befitting the subject.