there. These faint listless ideas made no more stir than the
sunlight gilding the fading leaves, the crisp turf underfoot.
With a slight effort he stooped even once again;--

'Stranger, a moment pause, and stay;
In this dim chamber hidden away
Lies one who once found life as dear
As now he finds his slumbers here:
Pray, then, the Judgement but increase
His deep, everlasting peace!'

'But then, do you know you lie at peace?' Lawford audibly
questioned, gazing at the doggerel. And yet, as his eyes wandered
over the blunt green stone and the rambling crimson-berried brier
that had almost encircled it with its thorns, the echo of that
whisper rather jarred. He was, he supposed, rather a dull
creature--at least people seemed to think so--and he seldom felt
at ease even with his own small facetiousness. Besides, just that
kind of question was getting very common. Now that cleverness was
the fashion most people were clever--even perfect fools; and
cleverness after all was often only a bore: all head and no body.
He turned languidly to the small cross-shaped stone on the other
side:

'Here lies the body of Ann Hard, who died in child-bed.
Also of James, her infant son.'

He muttered the words over with a kind of mournful bitterness.
'That's just it--just it; that's just how it goes!'... He yawned
softly; the pathway had come to an end. Beyond him lay ranker