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whose shop he passed every day on his way to the hospital.
His attention had been drawn to it often by the three words
in silver lettering on a black cloth, which, with two model
coffins, adorned the window: Economy, Celerity, Propriety.
They had always diverted him. The undertaker was a little
fat Jew with curly black hair, long and greasy, in black, with
a large diamond ring on a podgy finger. He received Philip
with a peculiar manner formed by the mingling of his natu-
ral blatancy with the subdued air proper to his calling. He
quickly saw that Philip was very helpless and promised to
send round a woman at once to perform the needful offices.
His suggestions for the funeral were very magnificent; and
Philip felt ashamed of himself when the undertaker seemed
to think his objections mean. It was horrible to haggle on
such a matter, and finally Philip consented to an expensive-
ness which he could ill afford.
‘I quite understand, sir,’ said the undertaker, ‘you don’t
want any show and that—I’m not a believer in ostentation
myself, mind you—but you want it done gentlemanly-like.
You leave it to me, I’ll do it as cheap as it can be done, ‘av-
ing regard to what’s right and proper. I can’t say more than
that, can I?’
Philip went home to eat his supper, and while he ate the
woman came along to lay out the corpse. Presently a tele-
gram arrived from Leonard Upjohn.
Shocked and grieved beyond measure. Regret cannot
come tonight. Dining out. With you early tomorrow. Deep-
est sympathy. Upjohn.
In a little while the woman knocked at the door of the

Of Human Bondage