Wandering Heath by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
page 110 of 194 (56%)
page 110 of 194 (56%)
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under a black coffin, which they carried shoulder high; and behind
came two figures only--those of Miss Montmorency and the architect-- arm in arm. The bearers wheeled round, got into step after one or two attempts, and the procession advanced. "And I observed, as it advanced, that a hush came slowly with it, closing on the click of the balls and the strumming of the banjoes, as from saloon after saloon the players stepped out and fell in at the tail of the procession. Gradually these noises were penned into the three or four saloons immediately beneath me; and then these, too, were silenced, and the mourners began to climb the hill. "I did not attend the funeral after all. I rose and stood hat in hand as it climbed past--the coffin, the one woman, and the many men. It was grotesque enough. Flo had on the same outrageous costume she had worn at our first meeting; but a look at the black drapery of the coffin sanctified _that_. One mourner, in pure absence of mind, had brought along his billiard-cue as a walking-stick; and every now and then would step out of the ranks and distribute whacks among the five or six dogs that frisked alongside the procession. But I read on every face the consciousness that Eucalyptus was doing its duty. "So they climbed past and up to the Necropolis, and filed in between its two pillars. I could see among the pines a group or two standing, with bent heads, and Captain Bill towering beside the grave; at times I heard his voice lifted, but could not catch the words. Down in the town for a while all was silent as death. Then in a saloon below some boy--left behind, no doubt, to look after the house--took up a banjo and began to pick out slowly and with one finger the tune of ''Way down upon the Suwanee River,' and as it went |
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