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Besides all these matrices or sockets of brasses he mentions a slab to the north of the steps leading to the choir which he thought to be, probably, a coffin-lid reversed. #The Stained Glass# in the western part of the church is all modern. In it we see specimens of the work of Messrs. Clayton and Bell, whose later windows are certainly finer than their earlier ones.
Hither we had brought him, in stealth, and slinking; here we had concealed him without any Christian ceremony, without psalm or toll of bell; no priest's blessing followed him to his grave, as it follows even the poorest beggar; and now here, in the house of the dead, grandmother had cursed the departed, and anathematized the other world, on whose threshold we stand, and in her mad despair was knocking at the door of the mysterious country as she beat upon the coffin-lid with her fist.
They were one, never more to part until the coffin-lid closed over one or the other. They were kneeling together now, and the vicar was rapidly repeating some psalms and prayers. But Frank's mind was not with the ritual. He looked slantwise at the graceful, girlish figure by his side. Her hair hung beautifully over her white neck, and the reverent droop of her head was lovely to his eyes.
His imagination was not very quick to represent impossible dangers, nor had he in him more cowardice than dwells in most brave men. He did not allow himself to conclude that he heard the coffin-lid being opened from the inside. He took his lamp and went to see what was wrong. The sound ceased as he moved. When the light of the lamp was in the next room all was perfectly silent.
And though all that great multitude could not see the open grave and Elizabeth and Clifton and Jacob at the head, and Betsey and her mother and Ben and all the rest standing near, no man left Gershom that day who had not heard how, when the first clods fell on the coffin-lid, and Jacob shuddered and grew white as death, old David Fleming, one of the bearers, went forward and gave him his arm to lean upon till the grave was filled and the last word spoken.
But then what change should I find in the expression of those features which on the day of the interment had looked so calm? A thrill ran through my frame as I pictured myself raising the coffin-lid, and finding expressed upon the face, in language more appalling than any malediction in articulate speech the curse!
On his face, wistful, absorbed, there was a faint, incongruous smile. He might have been watching a child playing some mysterious game. He sighed. His eyes turned from the coffin to the coffin-lid. He stared at the black letters on the shining brass plate. Emilius Olivier. Born November 13th, 1827. Died January 2nd, 1881. The grip on her shoulder tightened. "He was faithful, Mary."
As if an astronomical observatory should be made without any windows, and the astronomer within should arrange the starry universe solely by pen, ink, and paper, so Mr. To this Observatory, then: a stern room, with a deadly statistical clock in it, which measured every second with a beat like a rap upon a coffin-lid; Louisa repaired on the appointed morning.
Finally, brethren, be serious while I impart this concluding lesson: "She was a good wife to me. A good wife, God bless her!" The words were spoken in trembling accents over a coffin-lid.
As the sun dropped below Carmel the prophet cast down his staff and stretched out two groping hands to help her. Early last Fall there died in Troy an old man and his wife. The woman went first, and the husband took a chill at her grave's edge, when he stood bareheaded in a lashing shower. The loose earth crumbled under his feet, trickled over, and dropped on her coffin-lid.
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