was the cure of souls, but nothing touched his case. He took what was
offered, but it was with the air of one to whom the time for pellets was
passed. He sat or lay day after day almost motionless, never once making
a display of those vulgar convulsions or contortions of pain which are
so disagreeable to society. His favourite place was on the brightest
spot of a Smyrna rug by the conservatory, where the sunlight fell and he
could hear the fountain play. If we went to him and exhibited our
interest in his condition, he always purred in recognition of our
sympathy. And when I spoke his name, he looked up with an expression
that said, "I understand it, old fellow, but it's no use." He was to all
who came to visit him a model of calmness and patience in affliction.

I was absent from home at the last, but heard by daily postal-card of
his failing condition; and never again saw him alive. One sunny morning,
he rose from his rug, went into the conservatory (he was very thin
then), walked around it deliberately, looking at all the plants he knew,
and then went to the bay-window in the dining-room, and stood a long
time looking out upon the little field, now brown and sere, and toward
the garden, where perhaps the happiest hours of his life had been spent.
It was a last look. He turned and walked away, laid himself down upon
the bright spot in the rug, and quietly died.

It is not too much to say that a little shock went through the
neighbourhood when it was known that Calvin was dead, so marked was his
individuality; and his friends, one after another, came in to see him.
There was no sentimental nonsense about his obsequies; it was felt that
any parade would have been distasteful to him. John, who acted as
undertaker, prepared a candle-box for him, and I believe assumed a
professional decorum; but there may have been the usual levity
underneath, for I heard that he remarked in the kitchen that it was the
"dryest wake he ever attended." Everybody, however, felt a fondness for
Calvin, and regarded him with a certain respect. Between him and Bertha
there existed a great friendship, and she apprehended his nature; she
used to say that sometimes she was afraid of him, he looked at her so
intelligently; she was never certain that he was what he appeared to be.

When I returned, they had laid Calvin on a table in an upper chamber by
an open window. It was February. He reposed in a candle-box, lined about
the edge with evergreen, and at his head stood a little wine-glass with
flowers. He lay with his head tucked down in his arms,--a favourite
position of his before the fire,--as if asleep in the comfort of his
soft and exquisite fur. It was the involuntary exclamation of those who
saw him, "How natural he looks!" As for myself, I said nothing. John
buried him under the twin hawthorn-trees,--one white and the other
pink,--in a spot where Calvin was fond of lying and listening to the hum
of summer insects and the twitter of birds.

Perhaps I have failed to make appear the individuality of character that
was so evident to those who knew him. At any rate, I have set down
nothing concerning him but the literal truth. He was always a mystery. I
did not know whence he came; I do not know whither he has gone. I would
not weave one spray of falsehood in the wreath I lay upon his grave.

                                                  CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.




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| Transcriber's Note                                                   |
|                                                                      |
| Printer's errors have been corrected and hyphenation standardized.   |
| The author's spelling has been maintained.                           |
|                                                                      |
|                                                                      |
| Page number in Contents for Preface corrected from vii to ix.        |
|                                                                      |
| The following spelling corrections have been made:--                 |
|                                                                      |
| Page  41   'practise' to 'practice'. 'do not practice as a'          |
|                                                                      |
| Page  98   'necesssary' to 'necessary'. 'the door was not necessary'.|
|                                                                      |
| Page 122   'with' to 'which'. 'with that agility to which'.          |
|                                                                      |
| Page 125   'Accompaned' to 'Accompanied'. 'Accompanied by my lord'.  |
|                                                                      |
| Page 181   'undersood' to 'understood'. 'and so well understood'.    |
|                                                                      |                                                                     |
| Page 238   'icoseles' to 'isoceles'. 'a lean isoceles triangle'.     |
|                                                                      |
| Page 241   'obstrusive' to 'obtrusive'. 'the least obtrusive of      |
|             beings'.                                                 |
|                                                                      |
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