“Oh, please don’t be angry with me,” she said. “I’m no musician, you know, Mr. Grey,”—her knowledge of music was, as Maurice was aware, considerably above the average—“and I make stupid mistakes. Last night you played a little dance which you told me was by Grieg. Now, I never should have known it; I thought it was pretty enough, but just a little weak and—well, almost amateurish, you know. You played it again in the schoolroom this afternoon, and you altered the last part of it. What is that thing you played just now?”
“Chopin’s Funeral March.”
“Are you going to make any—any improvements in it, as you did in the Grieg? And why did you play a funeral march? I suppose the sight of an old woman like myself, among so many young people, suggested the thought of death. Ah, yes—very natural.”
This was absolutely intolerable, but Maurice was not allowed to protest or escape.
“It is a great mistake,” said Aunt Julia, earnestly, “to give one’s self up to trivialities. We must all die. It is always better to think about death, even in the drawing-room after dinner. I mean that it’s better for the aged, like myself. To the young it might perhaps seem a little gloomy and morbid, but I like it—I enjoy it. I shall be going to bed directly. Won’t you play a few hymn tunes, Mr. Grey, before I go? You might play the Dies Iræ.”
She did not go to bed until she had maddened about half the people in the room. Even Mrs. Meyner found it difficult at times to make excuses for Aunt Julia. Maurice Grey managed to be moderately polite to her as a rule; he generally shammed stupidity, and refused to see the point of any of her sarcasms. He found afterwards that this style of treatment had impressed Miss Julia Stone. When Marjorie came round to say good-night to Maurice, she spoke to him about the beetle.
“Do you want that dead beetle?” she asked. “Shall I keep it for you?”
“Yes, keep it.”
“Are you going on collecting again then?”
“No, I don’t think so—but it is too good a specimen to throw away just anywhere. How would you like to be thrown away?”