But the whole thing was absurd, she repeated to herself, and she found it easy to put it out of her thoughts.
Meanwhile, the first days after the catastrophe passed in that sad, unmarked succession of objectless hours by which time moves in a house where such a death has taken place.

It is not the custom among the upper classes of Italians to attend the funerals of relations and friends.

The servants are sent, in deep mourning, to kneel before the catafalque in church during the first requiem mass.

Occasionally some of the men of a family are present at the short ceremony in the cemetery.

But that is all.