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324 Guido till now. A sudden bustle, followed by an entire quiet, announced that the coffin had been carried across the threshold, and that the funeral procession was on its way. She rose from her seat, but the room appeared to flit before her eyes; and she was scarcely conscious of her own purpose, till Lucy entered, and silently offered to help her on with her cloak. She took her arm, thanked her by a gentle pressure, and together they proceeded on their melancholy duty.

All who have long been shut up in-doors know the almost intoxication of their first walk in the free wind and glad sunshine—the common expression of "you do not feel your feet," or "you seem to tread on air," so completely express the sensation. Francesca, as they wound along the meadow path, beside a hedge crowded with brier roses, and the fragrance yet lingering of the recently mown hay, while the sunshine and shadows chased each other rapidly over the green field, felt the exhilarating influence; but it was as suddenly checked by the remembrance that it was a solitary enjoyment. She looked with a grudging eye on this waste of life and beauty—there was none for him; and the sight of the coffin, with its deep black pall borne slowly along the glancing path, was a contrast of unutterable