Page 125 - Fairbrass

111 the will, and they certainly >vould not

have troubled to come to the funeral but
that they Tell certain that they had been

left a handsome sum for their services.
They had put the arrangements in the

hands of the best undertakers to be found,

and it must be ovmed that these gentlemen
had done their work nobly. There was the

usual untouched cold collation on the table,
and even this was in mourning;. The

chickens that, out of consideration for the
shattered nerves of the mourners, had been

carved and jointed before they were placed
on the table, were decorously tied together

with black ribbons, and a noble-looking
ham paid its last tribute of respect to the

deceased by wearing a black paper frill.
No one took any of these things. To be

sure, Fairbrass’s brothers, who were gathered
together in an oddly silent little black-

costumed group in a corner of the room,

looked as if they would like to do so ; but
they were over-awed by seeing that the two

shaky-handed executors, who might have
H