Robert knelt and thanked God for the noble man.
CHAPTER V.
A TALK WITH GRANNIE.
Dr. Anderson's body was, according to the fine custom of many of the
people of Aberdeen, borne to the grave by twelve stalwart men in
black, with broad round bonnets on their heads, the one-half
relieving the other--a privilege of the company of shore-porters.
Their exequies are thus freed from the artificial, grotesque, and
pagan horror given by obscene mutes, frightful hearse, horses, and
feathers. As soon as, in the beautiful phrase of the Old Testament,
John Anderson was thus gathered to his fathers, Robert went to pay a
visit to his grandmother.
Dressed to a point in the same costume in which he had known her
from childhood, he found her little altered in appearance. She was
one of those who instead of stooping with age, settle downwards: she
was still as erect as ever, though shorter. Her step was feebler,
and when she prayed, her voice quavered more. On her face sat the
same settled, almost hard repose, as ever; but her behaviour was
still more gentle than when he had seen her last. Notwithstanding,
however, that time had wrought so little change in her appearance,
Robert felt that somehow the mist of a separation between her world
and his was gathering; that she was, as it were, fading from his
sight and presence, like the moon towards 'her interlunar cave.'
Her face was gradually turning from him towards the land of light.
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