practice was passed. But he was not quite alone, his old friend Joris Van Heemskirk was with him to the last moment. The love of these old men for each other was a very beautiful thing.”     

       “He was once rich. Did he lose everything in the war?”     

       “Very near all. His home was saved by Van Heemskirk, and he had a little money ‘enough to die wi’’ he said one day to me; and then he continued, ‘there’s compensations, Doctor, in having naething to leave. My lads will find no bone to quarrel over.’       I met a messenger coming for me this morning, and when I went to his bedside, he said, with a pleasant smile, ‘I’ll be awa’       in an hour or twa now, Doctor; and then I’ll hae no mair worrying anent rebellion and democrats; I’ll be under the dominion o’       the King o’ kings and His throned Powers and Principalities; and after a’ this weary voting, and confiscations, and guillotining, it will be Peace—Peace—Peace:’—and with that word on his lips, the ‘flitting’ as he called it was accomplished.”     

       “There is nothing to mourn in such a death, John.”     

       “Indeed, no. It was just as he said ‘a flitting.’ And it was strange that, standing watching what he so fitly called the ‘flitting,’       I thought of some lines I have not consciously remembered for many years. They reflect only the old Greek spirit, with its calm acceptance of death and its untroubled resignation, but they seemed to me very applicable to the elder’s departure:     

  Not otherwise to the hall of Hades dim He fares, than if some summer eventide A Message, not unlooked for, came to him; Bidding him rise up presently, and ride Some few hours’ journey, to a friendly home.”  

       “There is nothing to fear in such a death.”     

       “Nothing at all. Last week when Cornelia and I passed his house, he was leaning on the garden gate, and he spoke pleasantly to her and told her she was a ‘bonnie lassie.’ Where is Cornelia?”     

       “In her room. John, she went to Duyckinck’s this morning for me, and George Hyde met her again, and they took a walk together on the Battery. It was near the noon hour when she returned.”     

       “She told you about it?”     

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