turned."

"You--you been awful good to me, Mame! I'll be back at the store
Monday."

"Good-by, honey! Here, let me hold the umbrella while you get in the
carriage. Gawd! ain't this a day, though? I'll go back up-stairs and
straighten up a bit before I go to the store. Good-by, honey! Just don't
you worry."

A few rain-beaten passersby huddled in the doorway to watch the
procession off. Heads leaned farther from their windows. Within the
hearse the Dove of Peace titillated on its white-carnation pillow as
they moved off.

Tillie sank back against a soft corner of the carriage's black rep
upholstery, which was punctured ever so often with deep-sunk buttons.
There was a wide strap dangling beside the window for an arm-rest, and a
strip of looking-glass between the front windows.

"I hope you are comfortable, little missy. If I say it myself, our
carriages are comfortable--that's one thing about a Lux funeral. There
ain't a trust concern in the business can show finer springs or better
tufting. But it's a easy matter to take cold in this damp. I've seen 'em
healthy as a herring go off just like that!" said Mr. Lux, snapping his
fingers to emphasize the precipitousness of sudden death.

"I ain't much of a one to take cold--neither was poor Angie. There
wasn't a girl in the corsets had a better constitution than poor Angie.
She always ailed a lot with her heart; but we never thought much of it."

"I thought she was your sister; but they say she was just your friend."

"Yes; but she was all I had--all I had."

"Such is life."

"Such is life."

They crept through the city streets, stopping to let cars rumble past
them, pulling up sharply before reckless pedestrians; then a smooth
bowling over a bridge as wide as a boulevard and out into the
rain-sopped country, with leafless trees stretching their black arms
against a rain-swollen sky, and the wheels cutting the mud road like a
knife through cold grease.

"Angie would have loved this ride! She was always hatin' the rich for
ridin' when she couldn't."

"There ain't a trust company in town can beat my carriages. I got a
fifty-dollar, one-carriage funeral here that can't be beat."

"Everything is surely fine, Mr. Lux."

"Lemme cover your knees with this rug, missy. We have one in all the
carriages. You look real worn out, poor little missy. It's a sad day for
you. Here, sit over on this side--it's quit rainin' now, and I'll open
the window."

The miles length