have
borrowed the sketch for the use of the sculptor. But of all this,
although it disturbed her, occurring as it did just when she hoped that
Stella was beginning to be forgotten, she spoke not a word to Morris.
"Least said, soonest mended," is a good if a homely motto, or so thought
Mary.

The monument had been in place a year, but whenever he was at home
Morris's visits to Mr. Fregelius did not grow fewer. Indeed, his wife
noticed that, if anything, they increased in number, which, as the organ
was now finished down to the last allegorical carvings of its case,
seemed remarkable and unnecessary. Of course, the fact was that on these
occasions the conversation invariably centred on one subject, and that
subject, Stella. Considered in certain aspects, it must have been a
piteous thing to see and hear these two men, each of them bereaved
of one who to them above all others had been the nearest and dearest,
trying to assuage their grief by mutual consolations. Morris had never
told Mr. Fregelius all the depth of his attachment to his daughter, at
least, not in actual, unmistakable words, although, as has been said,
from the first her father took it for granted, and Morris, tacitly at
any rate, had accepted the conclusion. Indeed, very soon he found that
no other subject had such charms for his guest; that of Stella he might
talk for ever without the least fear that Morris would be weary.

So the poor, childless, unfriended old man put aside the reserve and
timidity which clothed him like a garment, and talked on into those
sympathetic ears, knowing well, however--for the freemasonry of their
common love taught it to him--that in the presence of a third person
her name, no allusion to her, even, must pass his lips. In short, these
conversations grew at length into a kind of seance or solemn rite; a
joint offering to the dead of the best that they had to give, their
tenderest thoughts and memories, made in solemn secrecy and with
uplifted hearts and minds.

Mr. Fregelius was an historian, and possessed some interesting records,
upon which it was his habit to descant. Amongst other things he
instructed Morris in the annals of Stella's ancestry upon both sides,
which, as it happened, could be traced back for many generations. In
these discourses it grew plain to his listener whence had sprung certain
of her qualities, such as her fearless attitude towards death, and her
tendency towards mysticism. Here in these musty chr