The story was sort of ignorant and a little critical of the author"s view of the other people at the funeral. He criticizes everyone he sees and what they do. He was disrespectful to the lower class people especially. The diction conveys that Henry James was a magnificent yet a snobby person that would be rude at the funeral. The way he was being rude was by saying other people were a "manifestation" or "spectacle." He meant that the funeral wasn't really that important to him and that the lower class people were being ridiculous. Also, that there was a bunch of them at the funeral. He also called the lower class people "London rabble" and they were being noisy by a serious party. In conclusion, the author wanted to show us that
