Bishop O'Neill sang solemn high mass and the cardinal gave the final absolutions.

Thornton Hancock, Mrs.Lawrence, the British and Italian ambassadors, the papal delegate, and a host of friends and priests were there--yet the inexorable shears had cut through all these threads that Monsignor had gathered into his hands.

To Amory it was a haunting grief to see him lying in his coffin, with closed hands upon his purple vestments.

His face had not changed, and, as he never knew he was dying, it showed no pain or fear.

It was Amory's dear old friend, his and the others'-- for the church was full of people with daft, staring faces, the most exalted seeming the most stricken.
The cardinal, like an archangel in cope and mitre, sprinkled the holy water; the organ broke into sound; the choir began to sing the Requiem Eternam.
All these people grieved because they had to some extent depended upon Monsignor.