CHAPTER XII.
When Mr.Screw called at Claudius's hotel the next day, the Doctor had gone out.

Mr.Screw said he would wait, and sat down with a book to pass the time, for he was fond of reading in his leisure moments, few as they were.

Claudius had left the house early in the morning, and had gone to find the spot where his uncle had been buried--no easy matter, in the vast cemetery where the dead men lie in hundreds of thousands, in stately avenues and imposing squares, in houses grand and humble, high and low, but all closed and silent with the grandeur of a great waiting.
Claudius was not sentimental in this pilgrimage; it was with him a matter of course, a duty which he performed naturally for the satisfaction of his conscience.

He could not have told any other reason, though, if he had been called upon to analyse the feeling which impels most men to do the same thing, under the same circumstances, he would have replied that a scientific explanation of the fact could only be found in the ancient practices of "ancestor worship," of which some trace remains unto this day.

But he would have added that it was a proper mark of reverence and respect for the dead, and that man naturally inclines to fulfil such obligations, unless deterred by indolence or the fear of ridicule.