Jolyon, Swithin, Roger all gone, and he would be ninety in August! And

there was Soames married again to a French girl. The French were a queer

lot, but they made good mothers, he had heard. Things changed! They said

this German Emperor was here for the funeral, his telegram to old Kruger

had been in shocking taste. He should not be surprised if that chap made

trouble some day. Change! H'm! Well, they must look after themselves

when he was gone: he didn't know where he'd be! And now Emily had asked

Dartie to lunch, with Winifred and Imogen, to meet Soames' wife--she

was always doing something. And there was Irene living with that fellow

Jolyon, they said. He'd marry her now, he supposed.

'My brother Jolyon,' he thought, 'what would he have said to it all?'

And somehow the utter impossibility of knowing what his elder brother,

once so looked up to, would have said, so worried James that he got up

from his chair by the window, and began slowly, feebly to pace the room.

'She was a pretty thing, too,' he thought; 'I was fond of her. Perhaps

Soames didn't suit her--I don't know--I can't tell. We never had any

trouble with our wives.' Women had changed everything had changed! And

now the Queen was dead--well, there it was! A movement in the crowd

brought him to a standstill at the window, his nose touching the pane

and whitening from the chill of it. They had got her as far as Hyde Park

Corner--they were passing now! Why didn't Emily come up here where

she could see, instead of fussing about lunch. He missed her at that

moment--missed her! Through the bare branches of the plane-trees

he could just see the procession, could see the hats coming off the

people's heads--a lot of them would catch colds, he shouldn't wonder! A

voice behind him said:

"You've got a capital view here, James!"

"There you are!" muttered James; "why didn't you come before? You might

have missed it!"

And he was silent, staring with all his might.

"What's the noise?" he asked suddenly.

"There's no noise," returned Emily; "what are you thinking of?--they

wouldn't cheer."

"I can hear it."

"Nonsense, James!"

No sound came through those double panes; what James heard was the

groaning in his own heart at sight of his Age passing.

"Don't you ever tell me where I'm buried," he said suddenly. "I shan't

want to know." And he turned from the window. There she went, the old

Queen; she'd had a lot of anxiety--she'd be glad to be out of it, he

should think!




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