254 STRAY -AW AYS 



and noise wonderful great " — during which the corpse 

 comes near being smothered under the greatcoats of 

 the convives, " that had been thrown all on top." So 

 Sir Condy comes to life again, but " was rather upon 

 the sad order in the midst of it all, not finding there 

 had been such a great talk about himself after his 

 death as he had expected to hear." Sir Condy dies 

 in earnest of a Homeric draught of punch out of his 

 father's " great horn." 



" No," says he, " nothing will do me good no more," 

 and he gave a terrible screech with the torture he 

 was in — ^then again a minute's ease. " Brought to 

 this by drink," says he, " where are all the friends ? — 

 Where's Judy ? Gone, hey ? Ay, Sir Condy has been 

 a fool all his days ! " said he, and there was the last 

 word he spoke, and died. He had but a very poor 

 funeral after all. 



There is a perfectness in this that is hard to match 

 in any similar description. It exemplifies the ideal 

 method of the artist, in music, in painting, in narrative. 

 Touch and go. " He had but a very poor funeral 

 after all." 



