the attorney, who had a way, like him, of noting things without appearing
to see them, was conscious of it, and was perhaps decided by this trifle
to accost the gallant captain.

So he glided up the short aisle with a sad religious smile, suited to the
place, and inclined his lank back and his tall bald head toward the
captain in ceremonious greeting as he approached.

'How d'ye do, Larkin? The fog makes one cough a little this evening.'

Larkin's answer, thanks, and enquiries, came gravely in return. And with
the same sad smile he looked round on the figures, some marble, some
painted stone, of departed Brandons and Wylders, with garrulous epitaphs,
who surrounded them in various costumes, quite a family group, in which
the attorney was gratified to mingle.

'_Ancestry_, Captain Lake--_your_ ancestry--noble assemblage--monuments
and timber. Timber like the Brandon oaks, and monuments like these--these
are things which, whatever else he may acquire, the _novus homo_, Captain
Brandon Lake--the _parvenu_--can never command.'

Mr. Jos. Larkin had a smattering of school Latin, and knew half-a-dozen
French words, which he took out on occasion.

'Certainly our good people do occupy some space here; more regular
attendants in church, than, I fear, they formerly were; and their virtues
more remarked, perhaps, than before the stone-cutter was instructed to
publish them with his chisel,' answered Lake, with one of his quiet
sneers.