terror--I understood.

Although fear kept me fixed to the spot I noted with astonishment that
my grandmother was not at all disagreeable to look at; I had never
before seen a dead person, and I had imagined until then, that when
the spirit took its departure all that remained was a grinning, hideous
skeleton. On the contrary my grandmother had upon her face an extremely
sweet and tranquil smile; she was as beautiful as ever, and her face
appeared to be rejuvenated and filled with a holy peace.

Then there passed through my mind one of those sad flashes which
sometimes come to little children and permit them to see for a moment
into hidden depths, and I reflected: How can grandmother be in heaven,
how am I to understand the division of the one body into two parts, for
that which was left for interment, was it not my grandmother herself,
ah! was it not she even to the very expression that she bore in life?

After that I stole away with a bruised heart and downcast spirit,
not daring to ask a question of any one, fearful lest what I had so
unerringly divined would be confirmed, I did not wish to hear the dread
and terrible word pronounced. . . .

* * * * *

For a long time thereafter little silken sachet bags were always
associated in my mind with the idea of death.