PAGE 1

" THESE THREE." 87 pery. But now, though no foot had passed over it for weeks, neither master nor mistress came to say it must be cleaned; the old gardener sat whimpering over his pipe in the toolhouse, and the moss went on creeping over the gravel. And the days rolled after each other as before, till one came when the front doors were re-opened, and life seemed to break out again on the terrace walk. A procession was coming along, and the footsteps were more than firm-they fell heavy on the moss over which they trod, as if some burthen weighed them down. The moss had covered the terrace walk quite over by this time, and made it a pathway of tender green. There was no groaning now from the gravel; the new life and the old memories mingled so sweetly together. The very bearers noticed it, as they bent under the coffins they carried, for they felt to be stepping on velvet. The procession was a funeral. They were carrying the old couple to their next home in the churchyard close by. The two had only been parted a few days ; she went first, he after; and