ng for a man to consider and weigh that
question while he is young. Before he goes to sleep, you know, Griggs,
before he goes to sleep."

"'For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come--'" Griggs quoted,
and stopped.

"'When we have shuffled off this mortal coil.' You do not know your
Shakespeare, young man."

"'Must give us pause,'" continued Griggs. "I was thinking of the dreams,
not of the rest."

[Illustration:

"Fire and sleet and candle-light;
And Christ receive thy soul."

--Vol. I., p. 324.]

"Dreams? Yes. There will be dreams there. Dreams, and other
things--'this ae night of all.' Not that my reason admits that they can
be more than dreams, you know, Griggs. Reason says 'to sleep--no more.'
And fancy says 'perchance to dream.' Well, well, it will be a long
dream, that's all."

"Yes. We shall be dead a long time. Better drink now." And Griggs drank.

"'Fire and sleet and candle-light,
And Christ receive thy soul;'"

said Dalrymple, with a far-away look in his pale eyes. "Do you know the
Lyke-Wake Dirge, Griggs? It is a grand dirge. Hark to the swing of it.

"'This ae night, this ae night,
Every night and all,
Fire and sleet and candle-light,
And Christ receive thy soul.'"

He repeated the strange words in a dull, matter-of-fact way, with a
Scotch accent rarely perceptible in his conversation. Griggs listened.
He had heard the dirge before, with all its many stanzas, and it had
always had an odd fascination for him. He said nothing.

"It bodes no good to be singing a dirge at a betrothal," said the
Scotchman, suddenly. "Drink, man, drink! Drink till the blue devils fly
away. Drink--

"'Till a' the seas gang dry, my love,
Till a' the seas gang dry.'

Not that it is in the disposition of the Italian inn-keeper to give us
time for that," he added drily. "As I was saying, I am of a melancholic
temper. Not that I take you for a gay man yourself, Griggs. Drink a
little more. It is my opinion that a little more will produce an
agreeable impression upon you, my young friend. Drink a little more. You
are too grave for so very young a man. I should not wish to be
indiscreet, but I might almost take you for a man in love, if I did not
know you better. Were you ever in love, Griggs?"

"Yes," answered Griggs, quietly. "And you, Dalrymple? Were you never in
love?"

Dalrymple's l