ther records, ma'am, I can but call them
happy to have died little.'

'But isn't it interesting? Pitt tells me there were _six_ of the little
princess's brothers and sisters that stood here at her funeral, the
Black Prince among them. Just think of it! Around this tomb!'

'Why should it be more interesting to us than any similar gathering of
common people? There is many a spot in country graveyards at home where
more than six members of a family have stood together.'

'But, my dear, these were Edward the Third's children.'

'Yes. He was something when he was alive; but what is he to us now? And
why should we care,'--Betty hastily went on to generalities, seeing the
astonishment in Mrs. Dallas's face,--'why should we be more interested
in the monuments and deaths of the great, than in those of lesser
people? In death and bereavement all come down to a common humanity.'

'Not a _common_ humanity!' said Mrs. Dallas, rather staring at Betty.

'All are alike on the other side, mother,' observed Pitt. 'The king's
daughter and the little village girl stand on the same footing, when
once they have left this state of things. There is only one nobility
that can make any difference then.'

'"One nobility!"' repeated Mrs. Dallas, bewildered.

'You remember the words,--"Whosoever shall do the will of my Father
which is in heaven, the same is _my mother_, _and my sister_, _and
brother_." The village girl will often turn out to be the daughter of
the King then.'

'But you do not think, do you,' said Betty, 'that _all_ that one has
gained in this life will be lost, or go for nothing?
Education--knowledge--refinement,--all that makes one man or woman
really greater and nobler and richer than another,--will _that_ be all
as though it had not been?--no advantage?'

'What we know of the human mind forbids us to think so. Also, the
analogy of God's dealings forbids it. The child and the fully developed
philosopher do not enter the other world on an intellectual level; we
cannot suppose it. _But_, all the gain on the one side will go to
heighten his glory or to deepen his shame, according to the fact of his
having been a servant of God or no.'

'I don't know where you are getting to!' said Mrs. Dallas a little
vexedly.

'If we are to proceed at this rate,' suggested her husband, 'we may as
well get leave to spend all the working days of a month in the Abbey.
It will take us all that.'

'After all,' said Betty as they moved, '