raight off to sleep in the middle of a sentence.

I managed to get a few minutes with the Hopgoods. We talked of Pasiance
sitting in the kitchen under a row of plates, with that clinging smell of
wood-smoke, bacon, and age bringing up memories, as nothing but scents
can. The dear old lady's hair, drawn so nicely down her forehead on each
side from the centre of her cap, has a few thin silver lines; and her
face is a thought more wrinkled. The tears still come into her eyes when
she talks of her "lamb."

Of Zachary I heard nothing, but she told me of old Pearse's death.

"Therr they found 'en, zo to spake, dead--in th' sun; but Ha-apgood can
tell yu," and Hopgood, ever rolling his pipe, muttered something, and
smiled his wooden smile.

He came to see me off from the straw-yard. "'Tis like death to the
varrm, zurr," he said, putting all the play of his vast shoulders into
the buckling of my girths. "Mister Ford--well! And not one of th' old
stock to take it when 'e's garn.... Ah! it werr cruel; my old woman's
never been hersel' since. Tell 'ee what 'tis--don't du t' think to
much."

I went out of my way to pass the churchyard. There were flowers, quite
fresh, chrysanthemums, and asters; above them the white stone, already
stained:

"PASIANCE

"WIFE OF ZACHARY PEARSE

"'The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away.'"

The red cows were there too; the sky full of great white clouds, some
birds whistling a little mournfully, and in the air the scent of fallen
leaves....

May, 1900.

A KNIGHT

TO MY MOTHER

A KNIGHT

I

At Monte Carlo, in the spring of the year 189-, I used to notice an old
fellow in a grey suit and sunburnt straw hat with a black ribbon. Every
morning at eleven o'clock, he would come down to the Place, followed by a
brindled German boarhound, walk once or twice round it, and seat himself
on a bench facing the casino. There he would remain in the sun, with his
straw hat tilted forward, his thin legs apart, his brown hands crossed
between them, and the dog's nose resting on his knee. After an hour or
more he would get up, and, stooping a little from the waist, walk slowly
round the Place and return up hill. Just before three, he would come
down again in the same clothes and go into the casino, leaving the dog
outside.

One afternoon, moved by curiosity, I followed him. He passed through the
hall without looking at the gambling-r