lph called to mind that he had been one of a jury,
long before, on the body of a man who had cut his throat; and that he
was buried in this place. He could not tell how he came to recollect it
now, when he had so often passed and never thought about him, or how it
was that he felt an interest in the circumstance; but he did both; and
stopping, and clasping the iron railings with his hands, looked eagerly
in, wondering which might be his grave.

While he was thus engaged, there came towards him, with noise of shouts
and singing, some fellows full of drink, followed by others, who were
remonstrating with them and urging them to go home in quiet. They were
in high good-humour; and one of them, a little, weazen, hump-backed
man, began to dance. He was a grotesque, fantastic figure, and the few
bystanders laughed. Ralph himself was moved to mirth, and echoed the
laugh of one who stood near and who looked round in his face. When they
had passed on, and he was left alone again, he resumed his speculation
with a new kind of interest; for he recollected that the last person who
had seen the suicide alive, had left him very merry, and he remembered
how strange he and the other jurors had thought that at the time.

He could not fix upon the spot among such a heap of graves, but he
conjured up a strong and vivid idea of the man himself, and how he
looked, and what had led him to do it; all of which he recalled with
ease. By dint of dwelling upon this theme, he carried the impression
with him when he went away; as he remembered, when a child, to have had
frequently before him the figure of some goblin he had once seen chalked
upon a door. But as he drew nearer and nearer home he forgot it again,
and began to think how very dull and solitary the house would be inside.

This feeling became so strong at last, that when he reached his own
door, he could hardly make up his mind to turn the key and open it. When
he had done that, and gone into the passage, he felt as though to shut
it again would be to shut out the world. But he let it go, and it closed
with a loud noise. There was no light. How very dreary, cold, and still
it was!

Shivering from head to foot, he made his way upstairs into the room
where he had been last disturbed. He had made a kind of compact with
himself that he would not think of what had happened until he got home.
He was at home now, and suffered himself to consider it.

His own child, his own child! He never d