was stubborn. "This is my death," he said, with a touch of grim humour.
"If I'm dying I ought to be allowed to die in my own way."
Watson smiled at the man's unfaltering courage. He had never seen
anything like it before.
There were cards of sympathy, calls of inquiry, notices in the newspaper.
Robert saw an item in the Inquirer, and decided to go to Chicago.
Imogene called with her husband and they were admitted to Lester's room
for a few minutes after Jennie had gone to hers. Lester had little to say.
The nurse cautioned them that he was not to be talked to much. When
they were gone Lester said to Jennie, "Imogene has changed a good deal."
He made no other comment.
Mrs. Kane was on the Atlantic three days out from New York the
afternoon Lester died. He had been meditating whether anything more
could be done for Jennie, but he could not make up his mind about it.
Certainly it was useless to leave her more money. She did not want it. He had been wondering where Letty was and how near her actual arrival
might be when he was seized with a tremendous paroxysm of pain.
Before relief could be administered in the shape of an anaesthetic he was dead. It developed afterward that it was not the intestinal trouble which killed him, but a lesion of a major blood-vessel in the brain.
Jennie, who had been strongly wrought up by watching and worrying,
was beside herself with grief. He had been a part of her thought and
feeling so long that it seemed now as though a part of herself had died.
She had loved him as she had fancied she could never love any one, and
he had always shown that he cared for her—at least in some degree. She
could not feel the emotion that expresses itself in tears—only a dull ache, a numbness which seemed to make her insensible to pain. He looked so
strong—her Lester—lying there still in death. His expression was
unchanged— defiant, determined, albeit peaceful. Word had come from
Mrs. Kane that she would arrive on the Wednesday following. It was
decided to hold the body. Jennie learned from Mr. Watson that it was to
be transferred to Cincinnati, where the Paces had a vault. Because of the arrival of various members of the family, Jennie withdrew to her own
home; she could do nothing more.
The final ceremonies presented a peculiar commentary on the anomalies
of existence. It was arranged with Mrs. Kane by wire that the body should be transferred to Imogene's residence, and the funeral held from there.
Robert, who arrived the night Lester died; Berry Dodge, Imogene's
husband; Mr. Midgely, and three other citizens of prominence were
selected as pall-bearers. Louise and her husband came from Buffalo; Amy
and her husband from Cincinnati. The house was full to overflowing with
citizens who either sincerely wished or felt it expedient to call. Because of the fact that Lester and his family were tentatively Catholic, a Catholic priest was called in and the ritual of that Church was carried out. It was curious to see him lying in the parlour of this alien residence, candles at his head and feet, burning sepulchrally, a silver cross upon his breast,
caressed by his waxen fingers. He would have smiled if he could have
seen himself, but the Kane family was too conventional, too set in its
convictions, to find anything strange in this. The Church made no
objection, of course. The family was distinguished. What more could be
desired?
On Wednesday Mrs. Kane arrived. She was greatly distraught, for her
love, like Jennie's, was sincere. She left her room that night when all was silent and leaned over the coffin, studying by the light of the burning
candles Lester's beloved features. Tears trickled down her cheeks, for she had been happy with him. She caressed his cold cheeks and hands. "Poor, dear Lester!" she whispered. "Poor, brave soul!" No one told her that he had sent for Jennie. The Kane family did not know.
Meanwhile in the house on South Park Avenue sat a woman who was
enduring alone the pain, the anguish of an irreparable loss. Through all
these years the subtle hope had persisted, in spite of every circumstance, that somehow life might bring him back to her. He had come, it is true—
he really had in death—but he had gone again. Where? Whither her
mother, whither Gerhardt, whither Vesta had gone? She could not hope to
see him again, for the papers had informed her of his removal to Mrs.
Midgely's residence, and of the fact that he was to be taken from Chicago to Cincinnati for burial. The last ceremonies in Chicago were to be held
in one of the wealthy Roman Catholic churches of the South Side, St.
Michael's, of which the Midgely's were members.
Jennie felt deeply about this. She would have liked so much to have had
him buried in Chicago, where she could go to the grave occasionally, but
this was not to be. She was never a master of her fate. Others invariable controlled. She thought of him as being taken from her finally by the
removal of the body to Cincinnati, as though distance made any
difference. She decided at last to veil herself heavily and attend the
funeral at the church. The paper had explained that the services would be at two in the afternoon. Then at four the body would be taken to the
depot, and transferred to the train; the members of the family would
accompany it to Cincinnati. She thought of this as another opportunity.
She might go to the depot.
A little before the time for the funeral cortege to arrive at the church there appeared at one of its subsidiary entrances a woman in black, heavily
veiled, who took a seat in an inconspicuous corner. She was a little
nervous at first, for, seeing that the church was dark and empty, she feared lest she had mistaken the time and place; but after ten minutes of painful suspense a bell in the church tower began to toll solemnly. Shortly
thereafter an acolyte in black gown and white surplice appeared and
lighted groups of candles on either side of the altar. A hushed stirring of feet in the choir-loft indicated that the service was to be accompanied by music. Some loiterers, attracted by the bell, some idle strangers, a few
acquaintances and citizens not directly invited appeared and took seats.
Jennie watched all this with wondering eyes. Never in her life had she
been inside a Catholic church. The gloom, the beauty of the windows, the
whiteness of the altar, the golden flames of the candles impressed her. She was suffused with a sense of sorrow, loss, beauty, and mystery. Life in all its vagueness and uncertainty seemed typified by this scene.
As the bell tolled there came from the sacristy a procession of altar-boys.
The smallest, an angelic youth of eleven, came first, bearing aloft a
magnificent silver cross. In the hands of each subsequent pair of servitors was held a tall, lighted candle. The priest, in black cloth and lace,
attended by an acolyte on either hand, followed. The procession passed
out the entrance into the vestibule of the church, and was not seen again until the choir began a mournful, responsive chant, the Latin supplication for mercy and peace.
Then, at this sound the solemn procession made its reappearance. There
came the silver cross, the candles, the dark-faced priest, reading
dramatically to himself as he walked, and the body of Lester in a great