that. But it ought to be recognised as something natural
and mortal, and divine honours, which belong to righteousness alone,
ought not to be paid it."

"Oh, you ask too much, parson," laughed his host, and the talk wandered
away to something else.

It was not an elaborate dinner; but Lapham was used to having
everything on the table at once, and this succession of dishes
bewildered him; he was afraid perhaps he was eating too much. He now
no longer made any pretence of not drinking his wine, for he was
thirsty, and there was no more water, and he hated to ask for any. The
ice-cream came, and then the fruit. Suddenly Mrs. Corey rose, and said
across the table to her husband, "I suppose you will want your coffee
here." And he replied, "Yes; we'll join you at tea."

The ladies all rose, and the gentlemen got up with them. Lapham
started to follow Mrs. Corey, but the other men merely stood in their
places, except young Corey, who ran and opened the door for his mother.
Lapham thought with shame that it was he who ought to have done that;
but no one seemed to notice, and he sat down again gladly, after
kicking out one of his legs which had gone to sleep.

They brought in cigars with coffee, and Bromfield Corey advised Lapham
to take one that he chose for him. Lapham confessed that he liked a
good cigar about as well as anybody, and Corey said: "These are new. I
had an Englishman here the other day who was smoking old cigars in the
superstition that tobacco improved with age, like wine."

"Ah," said Lapham, "anybody who had ever lived off a tobacco country
could tell him better than that." With the fuming cigar between his
lips he felt more at home than he had before. He turned sidewise in
his chair and, resting one arm on the back, intertwined the fingers of
both hands, and smoked at large ease. James Bellingham came and sat
down by him. "Colonel Lapham, weren't you with the 96th Vermont when
they charged across the river in front of Pickensburg, and the rebel
battery opened fire on them in the water?"

Lapham slowly shut his eyes and slowly dropped his head for assent,
letting out a white volume of smoke from the corner of his mouth.

"I thought so," said Bellingham. "I was with the 85th Massachusetts,
and I sha'n't forget that slaughter. We were all new to it still.
Perhaps that's why it made such an impression."

"I don't know," suggested Charles Bellingham. "Was there anything much
more impressive