her burial that day.
This they had not known of before. Yet no funeral procession could
be seen approaching. It was already so late that it should have
been at the church by that time.

When it was about ten minutes of ten o'clock and time to be moving
toward the churchyard, the Ashdales folk noticed that every one
withdrew in the direction of the Daer Nol home, which was only two
minutes' walk from the church. They saw then what they had not
observed before, that the path leading from the town hall to the
house of Daer Nol was strewn with spruce twigs and that a spruce
tree had been placed at either side of the gate. Then it was from
there a body was to be taken. They wondered why nothing had been
said about a death in a family of such prominence. Besides, there
were no sheets put up at the windows, as there should be in a house
of mourning.

Then, in a moment, the front doors opened and a funeral party
emerged. First came August Daer Nol, carrying a creped mace. Behind
him walked the six pall-bearers with the casket. And now all the
people who had been standing outside the church fell into line
behind this funeral party. Then it was in order to do honour to
_this_ person they had come.

The coffin was carried down to the town hall and placed beside the
one already there. August Daer Nol arranged the trestles so that the
two coffins would rest side by side. The second coffin was not so
new and shiny as Katrina's. It looked as if it had been washed by
many rains, and had seen rough handling, for it was both scratched
and broken at the edges.

All the folk from the Ashdales suddenly caught their breath. For
then they knew it was not a Daer Nol that lay in this coffin! And
they also knew that it was not for the sake of some stranger of
exalted rank that so many people had come out to church. Instantly
every one looked at Glory Goldie, to see whether she understood. It
was plain she did.

Glory Goldie, pale and heart-broken, had been standing all the
while by her mother's coffin, and as she recognized the one that
had been brought from the Daer Nol home she was beside herself with
joy as one becomes when gaining something for which one has long
been striving. However, she immediately controlled her emotion.
Then, smiling wistfully, she lightly stroked the lid of Katrina's
coffin.

"Now it has turned out as well for you as ever you could have
wished," she seemed to be saying to her dead mother.

August Daer Nol