Mr. Pontifex had during his own
lifetime set up a monument in Elmhurst Church to the memory of his
wife (a slab with urns and cherubs like illegitimate children of
King George the Fourth, and all the rest of it), and had left space
for his own epitaph underneath that of his wife. I do not know whether
it was written by one of his children, or whether they got some friend
to write it for them. I do not believe that any satire was intended. I
believe that it was the intention to convey that nothing short of
the Day of could give anyone an idea how good a man Mr. Pontifex had
been, but at first I found it hard to think that it was free from
guile.
The epitaph begins by giving dates of birth and death; then sets out
that the deceased was for many years head of the firm of Fairlie and
Pontifex, and also resident in the parish of Elmhurst. There is not
a syllable of either praise or dispraise. The last lines run as
follows:
HE NOW LIES AWAITING A JOYFUL RESURRECTION
AT THE LAST DAY
WHAT MANNER OF MAN HE WAS
THAT DAY WILL DISCOVER.
CHAPTER XIX
THIS much, however, we may say in the meantime, that having lived to
be nearly seventy-three years old and died rich he must have been in
very fair harmony with his surroundings.
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