"There can be no better day," said Amethyst, as she walked away with him. Sylvester looked very tired and sad. He did not speak till they came near the house, then he looked round at her and said huskily-- "The dear boy has not much more to suffer." Amethyst silently put her hand in his, and so let him lead her in. If she had lately seen, in its worst form, the terror of death, what she saw now was indeed "Death as a friend." The quiet room, full of flowers and subdued light, the preparations for the Holy Feast; Lucian's fair face, white and peaceful. He looked at Amethyst and smiled, while Mrs Leigh kissed her and drew her to her side, and at once the service was begun. It was an hour of which Amethyst never spoke, but which she never forgot to her life's end. When it was over, he made a little sign, and she went up to him, and took his hand, then he smiled again and said-- "Good-bye;" and then--"Say the verse _now_, Amethyst--`amethysts unpriced.'" And then back upon Amethyst came the memory of the boy lover, whom she had reproved for connecting her name with the hymn of the heavenly city, and told him with girlish propriety, that he ought not to think about her in church. It thrilled her with a depth of meaning now, and choked her voice, but she managed to repeat it-- "Thine ageless walls are bonded With amethysts unpriced, And the saints build up the fabric, And the corner-stone is Christ." "It's true," said Lucian. "Now I understand. Good-bye, Amethyst, give me a kiss." She kissed him, and this time no flush of pain crossed his face, he smiled once more, so that she saw him, for the last time, smiling and watching her. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ That happy smile was never again driven away by cruel pain. The agony with which it had been feared life might end, never came. Lucian kissed his mother, then fell asleep with the peaceful look still on his face, and with his head on Sylvester's arm, and so passed away where there is no more pain, into a peace never to be broken. "Keep innocency and do the thing that is right, and that shall bring a man peace at the last," said Mr Riddell; and in due time, the words were cut on the white marble beneath which he rested, in the cemetery at Bordighera. This had been his own choice, he having, with characteristic directness, told his mother that he should like it best, and that she could put very handsome brasses in the churches at Toppings and Cleverley. Lucian was at peace, and there was much repose for those who had been watching him, in the sense that all his suffering was ended.