“That’s right, sir; and now you must come with me.”

“Boy,” said the man generously, “keep your liberty.  By grace of Providence, all men in authority are fools.  We shall meet again under the light of the moon.”

With dreamy eyes the boy watched the departure of his companion.  He had become almost invisible along the road when, miraculously as it seemed, the light of the moon broke through the trees by the wayside and lit up his figure.  For a moment it fell upon his head like a halo, and touched the knapsack of dreams with glory.  Then all was lost in the blackness of night.

As he turned homeward the boy felt a cold wind upon his cheek.  It was the first breath of dawn.

The Coffin Merchant

I

London on a November Sunday inspired Eustace Reynolds with a melancholy too insistent to be ignored and too causeless to be enjoyed.  The grey sky overhead between the house-tops, the cold wind round every street-corner, the sad faces of the men and women on the pavements, combined to create an atmosphere of ineloquent misery.  Eustace was sensitive to impressions, and in spite of a half-conscious effort to remain a dispassionate spectator of the world’s melancholy, he felt the chill of the aimless day creeping over his spirit.  Why was there no sun, no warmth, no laughter on the earth?  What had become of all the children who keep laughter like a mask on the faces of disillusioned men?  The wind blew down Southampton Street, and chilled Eustace to a shiver that passed away in a shudder of disgust at the sombre colour of life.  A windy Sunday in London before the lamps are lit, tempts a man to believe in the nobility of work.

At the corner by Charing Cross Telegraph Office a man thrust a handbill under his eyes, but he shook his head impatiently.  The blueness of the fingers that offered him the paper was alone sufficient to make him disinclined to remove his hands from his pockets even for an instant.  But, the man would not be dismissed so lightly.

“Excuse me, sir,” he said, following him, “you have not looked to see what my bills are.”

“Whatever they are I do not want them.”

“That’s where you are wrong, sir,” the man said earnestly.  “You will never find life interesting if you do not lie in wait for the unexpected.  As a matter of fact, I believe that my bill contains exactly what you do want.”

Eustace looked at the man with quick curiosity.  His clothes were ragged, and the visible parts of his flesh were blue with cold, but his eyes were bright with intelligence and his speech was that of an educated man.  It seemed to Eustace that he was being regarded with a keen expectancy, as though his decision I on the trivial point was of real importance.

“I don’t know what you are driving at,” he said, “but if it will give you any pleasure I will take one of your bills; though if you argue with all your clients as you have with me, it must take you a long time to get rid of them.”