Ex-Officio

The spacious rooms at Grassy Spring had been filled to their
utmost capacity by those of the villagers, who, having recovered
from their panic, came to join in the funeral obsequies of Dr.
Griswold. In the yard without the grass was trampled down and the
flowers broken from their stalks by the crowds, who, failing to
gain admittance to the interior of the house, hovered about the
door, struggling for a sight of the young girl, whose strange
death watch and stranger bonfire was the theme of every tongue.

Solemnly the voice of God's ambassador was heard, proclaiming, "I
am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," and then
a song was sung, the voices of the singers faltering, all but one,
which, rising clear and sweet above the rest, sang of the better
world, where the bright eternal noonday ever reigns, and the
assembled throng without held their breath to listen, whispering
to each other, "It is Nina, the crazy girl. She was the doctor's
betrothed."

Down the gravelled walk,--along the highway,--over the river, and
up the hill to the village churchyard the long procession moved,
and when it backward turned, one of the number was left behind,
and the August sunset fell softly upon his early grave. Sadly the
mourners, Arthur, Edith and Nina, went to their respective homes,
Edith seeking the rest she so much needed, Nina subdued and awed
into perfect quiet, sitting with folded hands in the room where
her truest friend had died, while Arthur, alone in his chamber,
held as it were communion with the dead, who seemed this night to
be so near to him.