insensibly taken the bitterness away and made him as a little child
in her hands. He could follow prayers in which she led him, as he
could not, or did not seem to do, with any one else, for he was
never conscious of the presence of the clergyman whom Thomson hunted
up and brought, and who prayed aloud with Martyn while the physical
agony claimed both my mother and Clarence.

Once Griff looked about him and called out for our father, then
recollecting, muttered, 'No--the birthright gone--no blessing.'

It grieved us much, it grieves me now, that this was his last
distinct utterance. He LOOKED as if the comforting replies and the
appeals to the Source of all redemption did awaken a response, but
he never spoke articulately again; and only thirty-six hours after
my mother's arrival, all was over.

Poor Selina went into passions of hysterics and transports of grief,
needing all the firmness of so resolute a woman as my mother to deal
with her. She was wild in self-accusation, and became so ill that
the care of her was a not unwholesome occupation for my mother, who
was one of those with whom sorrow has little immediate outlet, and
is therefore the more enduring.

She would not bring our brother's coffin home, thinking the
agitation would be hurtful to my father, and anxious to get back to
him as soon as possible. So Griff was buried at Baden, and from
time to time some of us have visited his grave. Of course she
proposed Selina's return to Chantry House with her; but Mr.
Clarkson, the brother, had come out to the funeral, and took his
sister home with him, certainly much to our relief, though all the