showed pity. The rest of the congregation continued to stare at the figure in the pulpit. There seemed to me something dumb and ox-like in their attentive frowning faces. The Air Vice-Marshal went on speaking as though no interruption had occurred. "I have made these preliminary remarks," he said, "because it is customary at a funeral to make some mention of the dead man. But I would have you know that what is customary among you--sentimentality, mawkishness, and extravagant praise of those who are already sufficiently well known--is considered amongst us of the Air Force neither customary nor proper. The fact of death itself is of such far-reaching significance that neither the manner of dying nor the person who dies can, at such times as this, be considered of much importance. Nor would I be among you to-day if it were simply a question of an old clergyman shot accidentally by one of my officers. As it happens I have much more important things of which to speak to you." Here he paused again, and now it was curiosity rather than anything else which kept his audience silent and attentive. What was perhaps most remarkable was not the outrageous manner in which the service was being conducted, but the complete self-assurance of the speaker. In no way whatever did he show any consciousness of offending almost every ear by the words he used. "Whether any of you," he said, "is yet aware of what is shortly to happen in this village, I do not know. Briefly, it is to be taken over by the Air Force. The property of your leading landowner, who gives most of you work at very low rates of pay, will be bought up by the Government. We shall install an Air Force padre in the place of your deceased Rector. You will be given work to do which, in many cases, will be different from the work which you have been in the habit of doing. Your pay, as long as the work is done conscientiously, will be increased. All this will be explained to you later. Now I merely wish to point out to you that you would do well to prepare for a great change in your lives. We in the Air Force look upon things very differently from those who have been used to dictate your ideas to you. Muddle, inefficiency, any kind of slackness are things which we simply do not tolerate. You will be given your instructions later. At the moment I have done what I came here to do, namely to prepare you for considerable changes. That is enough for the present. Now we shall bury the dead body." He glanced towards the coffin in the aisle and descended the steps of the pulpit. If the first part of his speech had outraged the congregation, by the second part they were quite dumbfounded. Men stared at one another as though they had been listening to something incredible or mad. There was already some muttering to be heard, when the visiting clergyman, pronouncing in a loud voice the words "Let us pray!", brought back an illusion of normality. The service continued as though the Air Vice-Marshal's speech had not been made; but there was a weakness and faltering in the singing and an air of uncertainty and desperation among us all as we followed the body, borne by four aircraftsmen, to the grave in the churchyard. Most conflicting feelings succeeded each other in my mind. At one moment I felt impelled to jostle one of the aircraftsmen out of the way and to take the handle of the bier upon my shoulder; for it seemed the last indignity that no friend should carry for the last time the man who had been to me as a father. But still his rest seemed to me more complete and solid than our agitation; and, as the coffin was lowered into the ground, and the earth scattered upon it, I seemed to see before my eyes the figure of the bearded man standing, as he had stood at the dinner party proposing my health. I could think of nothing then but of the finality of what was happening. I felt the Rector's wife grip my arm as we heard the earth falling upon the wood of the coffin. We turned away from the grave
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