“Yes,” said the Colonel quietly: “but if it is in the way of duty, I don’t see that we need mind.”
“Humph! Well, I don’t know about that. I should like to live to a hundred, if only for the sake of finding out what it feels like. Some people do.”
“Yes,” said the Colonel, smiling; “and over a hundred; but then they die.”
“Yes, of course; but from old ago.”
“And other things too, as the old epitaph says.”
“What old epitaph?”
“On the venerable lady. The lines run something like this:—
“She lived strong and well to a hundred and ten,
And died by a fall from a cherry-tree then.”
“Bah! don’t talk about dying, Graves. Poor Bracy! Oh, the Doctor must set him all right again. But this sort of thing does make one feel a bit serious.”
“It is very, very sad,” said the Colonel.