m the Royal
Court that he should have for himself--this he demanded as reward--free
lodging in two small upper rooms of the Cohue Royale, just under the
bell which said to the world, "Chicane--chicane! Chicane--chicane!"

This he asked, and this he got, and he alone of all Jersey went out
to bury three people who had died of cholera; and then to watch three
others die, to bury them scarce cold, and come back, with a leer of
satisfaction, to claim his price. At first people were inclined to make
a hero of him, but that only made him grin the more, and at last the
island reluctantly decided that he had done the work solely for fee and
reward.

The hammer used in nailing the coffins, he had carried through the town
like an emblem of terror and death, and henceforth he only, in the shop
of the Master, touched it.

"It won't hurt you if you leave it alone," said the apprentice grimly
to the Master of Burials. "But, if you go bothering, I'll put it in your
bed, and it'll do after to nail down your coffin."

Then he went on reading with a malicious calmness, as though the matter
were the dullest trifle:

Item: one dozen pairs of gloves for mourners.

"Par made, that's one way of putting it!" commented the apprentice, "for
what mourners was there but Ma'm'selle herself, and she quiet as a mice,
and not a teardrop, and all the island necks end to end for look at her,
and you, master, whispering to her: 'The Lord is the Giver and Taker,'
and the Femme de Ballast t'other side, saying 'My dee-ar, my dee-ar,
bear thee up, bear thee up--thee.'"

"And she looking so steady in front of her, as if never was shame about
her--and her there soon to be; and no ring of gold upon her hand, and
all the world staring!" broke in the Master, who, having edged away
from the cholera hammer, was launched upon a theme that stirred his very
soul. "All the world staring, and good reason," he added.

"And she scarce winking, eh?" said the apprentice. "True that--her eyes
didn't feel the cold," said the Master of Burials with a leer, for to
his sight as to that of others, only as boldness had been Guida's bitter
courage, the blank, despairing gaze, coming from eyes that turn their
agony inward.

The apprentice took up the account again, and prepared to read it. The
Master, however, had been roused to a genial theme. "Poor fallen child
of Nature!" said he. "For what is birth or what is looks of virtue like
a summer flower! It is to be brought d