It is curious how acquiescent a man's mind becomes--when he's like this.

I never believed it possible that a man really could die without regret, without some shadow of a desire to live.

Yet it is that way, Neville....
But a man must lie dying before he can understand it." * * * * * A highly tinted uncle from Oporto arrived in New York just in time to see Querida alive.

He brought with him a parrot.
"Send it to Mrs.Hind-Willet," whispered Querida with stiffening lips; "_uno lavanta la caca y otro la nata_." A few minutes later he died, and his highly coloured uncle from Oporto sent the bird to Mrs.Hind-Willet and made the thriftiest arrangement possible to transport what was mortal of a great artist to Oporto--where a certain kind of parrot comes from..