Everyone was talking and laughing as they
marched along. It was more like a polonaise than a funeral. In his
African period the sight of such a burial would have affected him
unpleasantly. But Mr. Heard was changing, widening out.
"These people live gaily," he said to himself. "Why not? A funeral is
supposed to be nothing but a friendly leave-taking. Why not be cheerful
about it? We are all going to see each other again, sometime,
somewhere. I suppose. . . ."
The problem gave him no trouble whatever.
He found himself walking side by side with Mr. Eames who ventured to
remark, in a seemly whisper, that he attended the funeral not so much
out of respect for the lamented lady--every cloud, he fancied, had a
silver lining--as because he hoped to gather, from among so
representative a concourse of natives and foreigners, the "popular
impression" of yesterday's eruption, with a view to utilizing it in
this appendix on RECENT VOLCANIC PHENOMENA OF NEPENTHE.
"Really?" replied the bishop. "A chapter on Volcanic Phenomena? It is
sure to be interesting.
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