The day of the funeral came, and the question of the casket and the
amulet was on my mind. The important thing, of course, was that the
matter should be kept absolutely secret. The valuables must be placed
in secrecy with the embalmed corpse at the last moment, before the
screwing down of the coffin, when servants and undertakers were out
of sight and hearing.
My mother knew what had been my father's instructions to me, and was
desirous that they should be fulfilled, though she scorned the
superstition. She and I placed the casket and the scroll hearing the
written curse upon it beneath my father's head, and hung the chain of
the amulet around his neck, so that the cross lay with the jewels
uppermost upon his breast. Then the undertakers were called in to
screw down the coffin in my presence. My mother afterwards called me
to her room, and told me that she was much troubled about the cross.
The amulet being of great value, my uncle Aylwin of Alvanley had
tried to dissuade her from carrying into execution what he called
'the absurd whim of a mystic'; but my mother urged my promise, and
there had been warm words between them, as my mother told me--adding,
however, 'and the worst of it is, that scamp Wynne, whom your uncle
introduced into this house without my knowledge or sanction, was
passing the door while your uncle was talking, and if he did not hear
every word about the jewelled cross, drink must have stupefied him
indeed.
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