Gradually, as his eye dwelt on the words, ‘Amelia, the beloved wife,’ the waves of feeling swelled within his soul, and he threw himself on the grave, clasping it with his arms, and kissing the cold turf.

’Milly, Milly, dost thou hear me?  I didn’t love thee enough—­I wasn’t tender enough to thee—­but I think of it all now.’

The sobs came and choked his utterance, and the warm tears fell.

CONCLUSION

Only once again in his life has Amos Barton visited Milly’s grave.  It was in the calm and softened light of an autumnal afternoon, and he was not alone.  He held on his arm a young woman, with a sweet, grave face, which strongly recalled the expression of Mrs. Barton’s, but was less lovely in form and colour.  She was about thirty, but there were some premature lines round her mouth and eyes, which told of early anxiety.

Amos himself was much changed.  His thin circlet of hair was nearly white, and his walk was no longer firm and upright.  But his glance was calm, and even cheerful, and his neat linen told of a woman’s care.  Milly did not take all her love from the earth when she died.  She had left some of it in Patty’s heart.

All the other children were now grown up, and had gone their several ways.  Dickey, you will be glad to hear, had shown remarkable talents as an engineer.  His cheeks are still ruddy, in spite of mixed mathematics, and his eyes are still large and blue; but in other respects his person would present no marks of identification for his friend Mrs. Hackit, if she were to see him; especially now that her eyes must be grown very dim, with the wear of more than twenty additional years.  He is nearly six feet high, and has a proportionately broad chest; he wears spectacles, and rubs his large white hands through a mass of shaggy brown hair.  But I am sure you have no doubt that Mr. Richard Barton is a thoroughly good fellow, as well as a man of talent, and you will be glad any day to shake hands with him, for his own sake as well as his mother’s.

Patty alone remains by her father’s side, and makes the evening sunshine of his life.

MR. GILFIL’S LOVE STORY

Chapter 1

When old Mr. Gilfil died, thirty years ago, there was general sorrow in Shepperton; and if black cloth had not been hung round the pulpit and reading-desk, by order of his nephew and principal legatee, the parishioners would certainly have subscribed the necessary sum out of their own pockets, rather than allow such a tribute of respect to be wanting.  All the farmers’ wives brought out their black bombasines; and Mrs. Jennings, at the Wharf, by appearing the first Sunday after Mr. Gilfil’s death in her salmon-coloured ribbons and green shawl, excited the severest remark.  To be sure, Mrs. Jennings was a new-comer, and town-bred, so that she could hardly be expected to have very clear