She was old and gray-haired, but she looked young and was very handsome.

We sat down and talked.

We steeped our thirsty souls in the reviving wine of the past, the beautiful past, the dear and lamented past; we uttered the names that had been silent upon our lips for fifty years, and it was as if they were made of music; with reverent hands we unburied our dead, the mates of our youth, and caressed them with our speech; we searched the dusty chambers of our memories and dragged forth incident after incident, episode after episode, folly after folly, and laughed such good laughs over them, with the tears running down; and finally Mary said suddenly, and without any leading up-- "Tell me! What is the special peculiarity of smoked herrings ?" It seemed a strange question at such a hallowed time as this.

And so inconsequential, too.

I was a little shocked.