the High Street.

He did not pause again till he arrived opposite a long, low, gabled
house, evidently one of the oldest buildings in the place, though
brightly painted and whitewashed, to look as new and unpicturesque as
possible. The basement story was divided into two shops; which, however,
proclaimed themselves as belonging now, and having belonged also in
former days, to one and the same family. Over the larger of the two was
painted in letters of goodly size:--

_Bradford and Son (late Joshua Grice), Linendrapers, Hosiers, &c., &c._

The board on which these words were traced was continued over the
smaller shop, where it was additionally superscribed thus:--

_Mrs. Bradford (late Joanna Grice), Milliner and Dressmaker._

Regardless of rain, and droppings from eaves that trickled heavily down
his hat and coat, Mat stood motionless, reading and re-reading these
inscriptions from the opposite side of the way. Though the whole man,
from top to toe, was the very impersonation of firmness, he nevertheless
hesitated most unnaturally now. At one moment he seemed to be on the
point of entering the shop before him--at another, he turned half round
towards the churchyard which he had left behind him. At last he decided
to go back to the churchyard, and retraced his steps accordingly.

He entered quickly by the gate at which he had delayed before; and
pursued the path among the graves a little way. Then striking off over
the grass, after a moment's consideration and looking about him, he
wound his course hither and thither among the turf mounds, and stopped
suddenly at a plain flat tombstone, raised horizontally above the
earth by a foot or so of brickwork. Bending down over it, he read the
characters engraven on the slab.

There were four inscriptions, all of the simplest and shortest kind,
comprising nothing but a record of the names, ages, and birth and death
dates of the dead who lay beneath. The first two inscriptions notified
the deaths of children:--"Joshua Grice, son of Joshua and Susan Grice,
of this parish, aged four years;" and "Susan Grice, daughter of the
above, aged thirteen years." The next death recorded was the mother's:
and the last was the father's, at the age of sixty-two. Below this
followed a quotation from the New Testament:--_Come unto me all ye that
are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest._ It was on these
lines, and on the record above them of the death of Joshua Grice the
elder,