life, but a galvanised and gesticulating Joe, whereas the
Joe that we knew was of a lethargic bearing and slow habit of speech.
Still, it was he, and as he came up to us he stayed all questioning
by gasping out the word "Missus!" and then falling into a violent fit
of coughing.

"Well, what is amiss?" asked Tom.

"Took wi' a seizure, an' maister like a thing mazed," blurted Joe,
and then fell to panting and coughing worse than ever.

"What! a seizure? paralysis do you mean?" I asked, while Tom turned
white.

"Just a seizure, and I ha'n't got time for no longer name. But run
if 'ee want to see her alive."

We ran without further speech, Joe keeping at our side for a minute,
but soon dropping behind and fading into distance. As we entered the
door Uncle Loveday met us, and I saw by his face that Aunt Elizabeth
was dead.

She had been in the kitchen busied with our supper, when she suddenly
fell down and died in a few minutes. Heart disease was the cause,
but in our part people only die of three complaints--a seizure, an
inflammation, or a decline. The difference between these is purely
one of time, so that Joe Roscorla, learning the suddenness of the
attack, judged it forthwith a case of "seizure," and had so reported.

My poor aunt was dead; and until now we had never known how we loved
her. Like so many of the Trenoweths she seemed hard and reserved to
many, but we who had lived with her had learnt the goodness of her
soul and the sincerity of her religion. The grief of her husband was
her noblest epitaph.

He, poor man, was inconsolable. Without his wife he seemed as one
deprived of most of his limbs, and moved helplessly about, as though
life were now without purpose. Accustomed to be ruled by her at
every turn, he missed her in every action of the day. Very swiftly
he sank, of no assigned complaint, and within six months was laid
beside her.

On his death-bed my uncle seemed strangely troubled about us.
Tom was to be a doctor. My destiny was not so certain; but already I
had renounced in my heart an inglorious life in Lizard Town.
I longed to go with Tom; in London, too, I thought I should be free
to follow the purpose of my life. But the question was, how should I
find the money? For I knew that the sum obtained by the sale of
Lantrig was miserably insufficient. So I sat with idle hands and
waited for destiny; nor did I realise my helplessness until I stood
in the room where Uncle Loveday