as main haard gettin' et dooan so soon, and et
cooast"--

"Never mind the cost. I've given you money enough, I think, and if I
haven't, I guess I can give you more."

"Ay, miss! Abbut the pa'son 'ead gi' un a funeral for nowt."

"But I understood you to say," said Miss Desborough, with an impatient
flash of eye, "that your grandfather wished to be buried with his
kindred in the north?"

"Ay, miss," said the girl apologetically, "an naw 'ees savit th' munny.
Abbut e'd bean tickled 'ad 'ee knowed it! Dear! dear! 'ee niver thowt et
'ud be gi'en by stranger an' not 'es ownt fammaly."

"For all that, you needn't tell anybody it was given by ME," said Miss
Desborough. "And you'll be sure to be ready to take the train this
afternoon--without delay." There was a certain peremptoriness in her
voice very unlike Miss Amelyn's, yet apparently much more effective with
the granddaughter.

"Ay, miss. Then, if tha'll excoose mea, I'll go streight to 'oory oop
sexten."

She bustled away. "Now," said Miss Desborough, turning to the other
girl, "I shall take the same train, and will probably see you on the
platform at York to give my final directions. That's all. Go and see if
the gentleman who came with me has returned from the station."

The girl obeyed. Left entirely alone, Miss Desborough glanced around
the room, and then went quietly up to the unlidded coffin. The repose of
death had softened the hard lines of the old man's mouth and brow into a
resemblance she now more than ever understood. She had stood thus only
a few years before, looking at the same face in a gorgeously inlaid
mahogany casket, smothered amidst costly flowers, and surrounded by
friends attired in all the luxurious trappings of woe; yet it was the
same face that was now rigidly upturned to the bare thatch and rafters
of that crumbling cottage, herself its only companion. She lifted her
delicate veil with both hands, and, stooping down, kissed the hard, cold
forehead, without a tremor. Then she dropped her veil again over her dry
eyes, readjusted it in the little, cheap, black-framed mirror that hung
against the wall, and opened the door as the granddaughter returned. The
gentleman was just coming from the station.

"Remember to look out for me at York," said Miss Desborough, extending
her gloved hand. "Good-by till then." The young girl respectfully
touched the ends of Miss Desborough's fingers, dropped a curtsy, and
Miss Desborough rejoined the consul.