ith him. You know I don't embody the
idea of immortality, and the church is no bad place even for
unbelievers. The fact is, it struck me as profoundly pathetic. He wasn't
arrogant about it, as people sometimes are,--they seem proud of not
believing; but he was sufficiently ignorant in his premises. He said he
had seen too many dead people. You know he was in the civil war."

"No!"

"Yes,--through it all. It came out on my asking him if he were going to
the Decoration Day services. He said that the sight of the first great
battlefield deprived him of the power of believing in a life hereafter.
He was not very explanatory, but as I understood it the overwhelming
presence of death had extinguished his faith in immortality; the dead
riders were just like their dead horses"--

"Shocking!" Mrs. Ewbert broke in.

"He said something went out of him." Ewbert waited a moment before
adding: "It was very affecting, though Hilbrook himself was as apathetic
about it as he was about everything else. He was not interested in not
believing, even, but I could see that it had taken the heart out of life
for him. If our life here does not mean life elsewhere, the interest of
it must end with our activities. When it comes to old age, as it has
with poor Hilbrook, it has no meaning at all, unless it has the hope of
more life in it. I felt his forlornness, and I strongly wished to help
him. I stayed a long time talking; I tried to interest him in the fact
that he was not interested, and"--

"Well, what?"

"If I didn't fatigue Hilbrook, I came away feeling perfectly exhausted
myself. Were you uneasy at my being out so late?"

V.

It was some time after the Ewberts had given up expecting him that old
Hilbrook came to return the minister's visit. Then, as if some excuse
were necessary, he brought a dozen eggs in a paper bag, which he said he
hoped Mrs. Ewbert could use, because his hens were giving him more than
he knew what to do with. He came to the back door with them; but Mrs.
Ewbert always let her maid of all work go out Sunday evening, and she
could receive him in the kitchen herself. She felt obliged to make him
the more welcome on account of his humility, and she showed him into the
library with perhaps exaggerated hospitality.

It was a chilly evening of April, and so early that the lamp was not
lighted; but there was a pleasant glow from the fire on the hearth, and
Ewbert made his guest sit down before it. As he lay back i