The Dolls Funeral 83

grave next to Christmas. For the doll is
dead. I told her what they had said to me
and her heart is quite broken. Look!” .

If Doris had been less like the child she
was she would long since have ceased to
lavish her affection on the battered thing
of which she spoke. It lay supine, with
eyes closed, and a dear, dead child could
hardly have seemed more wonderful than
did the doll to the Visitor.

“You are going to bury her?” he
asked.

“T must,” said Doris, plaintively. ‘ Will
you come and walk with me?”

Somehow or other the Visitor failed to
be completely sympathetic.

For the red robe of love
With my state doth not agree;
And if....

He began to whistle the tune which had
haunted him all the day, and then, remem-
bering the situation, ceased disconcertedly.
“Do you think I should be in the right