Although all day they had hourly expected this end, yet now they could not quite believe that it had indeed come.

The huge, strong man, the rugged Iron King—­dead?  He who, if not as indestructible as he seemed, was at least constituted of that stern stuff of which centenarians are made, and whom all expected should live far up into the eighties or nineties—­dead?  The father who had lived over them like some mighty governing and protecting power all their lives, necessary, inevitable, inseparable from their lives—­dead?

“Come, my dear,” said Mr. Clarence, gently raising Corona and leading her away.  “You have this to console you:  he died reconciled to you, holding your hand in his to the last.”

“Ah, dear Uncle Clarence, you have much more to console you, for you never failed even once in your duty to him, and never gave him one moment of uneasiness in all your life,” replied Corona, as she left him in front of her old room.

She entered and shut the door and gave way to the natural grief that overwhelmed her for a time.

When she was sufficiently composed she sat down and wrote to her brother, informing him of what had occurred, and telling him that she still held her purpose of going out to him with the Nevilles.

CHAPTER XXXII.

“SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI.”

If old Aaron Rockharrt, the Iron King, had never been generally loved, he was certainly very highly respected by the whole community.  The news of his sudden death fell like a shock upon the public.  Preparations for the obsequies were on the grandest scale.

They occupied two days.  On the first day there were funeral services at Rockhold, performed by the Rev. Luke Melville, pastor of the North End Mission Church, and attended by all the neighboring families, as well as by all the operatives of the works.  After these were over, the whole assembly, many in carriages and many more on foot, followed the hearse that carried the remains to the North End railway depot, where the coffin was placed in a special car prepared for its reception, and, attended by the whole family, it was conveyed to the State capital and deposited in the long drawing room of the Rockharrt mansion, where it remained until the next day.  On the second day funeral services were held at the town house by the bishop of the diocese, assisted by the rector of the church of the Lord’s Peace, and attended by a host of the city friends of the family.

After these services the long funeral procession moved from the house to the cemetery of the Lord’s Peace, where the body was laid in the Rockharrt vault beside that of his old wife.

On the return of the family to the house they assembled in the library to hear the reading of the will of Aaron Rockharrt, which had been brought in by his solicitor, Mr. Benjamin Norris.

There were present, seated around the table, Fabian, Violet, and Clarence Rockharrt, Cora Rothsay, the doctor and the lawyer.  Standing behind these were gathered the servants of the family.