by many a death-bed; for I am too often sent for when Death is already
beckoning the sick man away. I have met thousands of mourners in these
melancholy scenes, which, I can assure you, are the very best school for
training any one who desires to search the hearts of his fellow-
creatures. By the bed of death, or in the mart, where everything is a
question of Mine and Thine, it is easy to see how some--we for instance
--are as careful to hide from the world all that is great and noble in us
as others are to conceal what is petty and mean--we read men's hearts as
an open page. From my observations of the dying and of those who sorrow
for them, I, who am not Menander not Lucian, could draw a series of
portraits which should be as truthful likenesses as though the men had
turned themselves inside out before me."

"That a dying man should show himself as he really is I can well
believe," replied Paula. "He need have no further care for the opinions
of others; but the mourners? Why, custom requires them to assume an air
of grief and to shed tears."

"Very true; regret repeats itself by the side of the dead," replied the
physician. "But the chamber of the dying is like a church. Death
consecrates it, and the man who stands face to face with death often
drops the mask by which he cheats his fellows. There we may see faces
which you would shudder to look on, but others, too, which merely to see
is enough to make us regard the degenerate species to which we belong
with renewed respect."

"And you found such a comforting vision in Orion,--the thief, the false
witness, the corrupt judge!" exclaimed Paula, starting up in indignant
astonishment.