insignificant‑looking magnate, with the dark and serious air but it is not to be.  He is being tried and condemned; his employment, his life, is being taken from him.
The faces of the two men are very unlike.  Sir Edward's wears the look of conscious virtue, of snug justice, and of stern condemnation.  William’s has the air of dumb resignation to the inevitable that the cows of Somerhill had.  He turns; his interview is over; but before he passes through the door, as though by some instinctive intuition, he turns back.  Like a knife cutting into his heart, he hears the final words of Sir Edward, “ Call yourself a clerk ? ”

Chapter III.

WAY   OF   GOD.
There is no sun now.  Dull, heavy clouds overhang the earth.  Everything seems to be asleep; but it is not the peaceful sleep of innocence and purity.  It is the troubled sleep of anxiety.  Earth seems to be crouching, moodily, fearfully, behind the clouds, as though afraid of what lies beyond.  Within the cemetery, the shade lies darker, heavier, nay, even thicker.  To the groups clustered round the two open graves, there is a clammy density in the air.  The larger group is singing hesitantly, as though afraid that their voices will penetrate this overhanging heaviness, to bring down a more material form of the unknown and fearful threat that lies in the air.  The small group is silent.
They are moving away now.  The gates close behind the cars.  Everything is still within.  The gloom is becoming intensified; a fearful shadow passes over the two fresh mounds of earth.  Then, as though the sun had suddenly pierced the clouds and fallen in a flaming radiance upon the earth, a blinding light flashes upon the two graves.  They only are illuminated with this pure ray, and from the blazing majesty of its source, a voice echoes through the light
“ Call yourselves men ? ”
J. S. Boobyer (VIA).
Life
Too soon, too soon
Blown petals fall upon the grass ;
Too soon, too soon
The sweetest joys of Summer pass ;
Too soon, too soon.
Too soon, too soon
Our strongest hopes are turned to fears ;
Too soon, too soon.
The smiling eye is dimmed with tears ;
Too soon, too soon.
Too soon, too soon,
The River flows into the Sea ;
So soon, so soon,
United I will be with Thee,
Soon, yes, soon.
W. E. Jones (VIA).