intensity which so quickens one's hearing, that the faintest sounds
are distinct at great distances. He heard the trampling footsteps as the
people came crowding in, and the tread of horses' feet as sleigh after
sleigh drove up the avenue, and once, with a shudder, he said:

'That is the hearse. I am sure of it.'

Then all was still, and listen as he might he could not distinguish the
faintest sound until the services were over and the people began to
leave the house.

'There,' he said, with a sigh of relief; 'it will soon be over. Bring me
my clothes, Charles. I am going to get up and see the last of this poor
woman. God help her, whoever she was.'

He was beginning to feel a great pity for the woman whose coffin they
were putting in the hearse, which moved off a few rods, and then stopped
until the open sleigh came up, the sleigh in which Frank Tracy sat,
muffled in his heavy overcoat, for the day, though bright and sunny, was
cold, and a chill March wind was blowing. Dolly had taken refuge in a
headache which had prevented her from being present at the funeral and
kept her from going to the grave as her husband had wished her to do. So
only Harold and Jerry occupied the sleigh with Frank, and these sat
opposite him, with their backs to the horses, Jerry in her gray cloak
and blue hood showing conspicuously as she came into full view of the
window where Arthur stood looking at the procession with a feeling at
his heart, as if in some way he were interested in the sad funeral,
where there was no mourner, no one who had ever seen or known the
deceased, save the little helpless girl, looking around her in perfect
unconcern save as she rather liked the stir and all that was going on.

They had tied a thin veil over her head to shield her from the cold, and
thus her face was not visible to Arthur. But he saw the blue hood and
the golden hair on the old gray cloak, and the sight of it moved him
mightily, making him hold fast to the window-casing for support, while
he stood watching it. Just as far as he could see it his eye followed
that hood, and when it disappeared from view, he turned from the window,
deathly sick, and tottering back to his bedroom, vomited from sheer
nervous excitement.

'Thank Heaven it is over and the rabble gone,' he said, when he became
easier. 'Go now and open all the doors and windows to let in the fresh
air and out the smell they are sure to have left. Ugh! I get a whiff of
it now. Burn so