f
throbbing emotions always swiftly ministered to, always leaving the same
dull sensation of discontent; a world in which the pathways were broad
and smooth, but in which the end seemed always the same; a world of
receding beauties and mocking desires. The faces of her friends were
there--men and women, brilliant, her intellectual compeers, a little
tired, offering always the same gifts, the same homage.

"My life, and the world in which I live, seem far away just now," she
said quietly. "I think that it is doing me good to have a rest from
them. Go on talking to me about yourself, please."

He smiled. He was just a little disappointed.

"We shall very soon reach the end of all that I have to tell you," he
remarked. "Still, if there is anything you would like to know--"

"Who were these men and women who have lived and died here?" she
interrupted, with a little wave of her hand toward the graves.

"All our own people," he told her; "laborers, shepherds, tenant-farmers,
domestic servants. Our clergyman comes from the village on the other
side of that hill. He rides here every Sunday on a pony which we have to
provide for him."

She studied the names upon the tombstones, spelling them out slowly.

"The married people," he went on, "are buried on the south side; the
single ones and children are nearer the wall. Tell me," he asked, after
a moment's hesitation, "are you married or single?"

She gave a little start. The abruptness of the question, the keen,
steadfast gaze of his compelling eyes, seemed for a moment to paralyze
both her nerves and her voice. Again the hills rolled open, but this
time it was her own life only that she saw, her own life, and one man's
face which she seemed to see looking at her from some immeasurable
distance, waiting, yet drawing her closer toward him, closer and closer
till their hands met.

She was terrified at this unexpected tumult of emotion. It was as if
some one had suddenly drawn away one of the stones from the foundation
of her life. She found herself repeating the words on the tombstone
facing her:

"And of Elizabeth, for sixty-one years the faithful wife and
helpmate of Ezra Cummings, mother of his children, and his
partner in the life everlasting."

Her knees began to shake. There was a momentary darkness before her
eyes. She felt for the tombstone and sat down.

IV

The churchyard gate was opened and closed nois