United States Minister and his wife, then Washington and the three
boys, and in the last carriage was Mrs. Umney. It was generally
felt that, as she had been frightened by the ghost for more than
fifty years of her life, she had a right to see the last of him. A
deep grave had been dug in the corner of the churchyard, just under
the old yew-tree, and the service was read in the most impressive
manner by the Rev. Augustus Dampier. When the ceremony was over,
the servants, according to an old custom observed in the Canterville
family, extinguished their torches, and, as the coffin was being
lowered into the grave, Virginia stepped forward and laid on it a
large cross made of white and pink almond-blossoms. As she did so,
the moon came out from behind a cloud, and flooded with its silent
silver the little churchyard, and from a distant copse a nightingale
began to sing. She thought of the ghost's description of the Garden
of Death, her eyes became dim with tears, and she hardly spoke a
word during the drive home.

The next morning, before Lord Canterville went up to town, Mr. Otis
had an interview with him on the subject of the jewels the ghost had
given to Virginia. They were perfectly magnificent, especially a
certain ruby necklace with old Venetian setting, which was really a
superb specimen of sixteenth-century work, and their value was so
great that Mr. Otis felt considerable scruples about allowing his
daughter to accept them.

'My lord,' he said, 'I know that in this country mortmain is held to
apply to trinkets as well as to land, and it is quite clear to me
that these jewels are, or should be, heirlooms in your family. I
must beg you, accordingly, to take them to London with you, and to
regard them simply as a portion of your property which has been