Apparently, there was some powerful excitement in the ideas which had
now flashed across his mind. He snatched the torch from his
companion's hand, and threw open the door with such sudden violence,
that the flame was extinguished, leaving them no other light than the
moonbeams, which fell through two windows into the spacious chamber.
It was sufficient to discover all that could be known. In a high-
hacked oaken arm-chair, upright, with her hands clasped across her
breast, and her head thrown back, sat the "Old Maid in the Winding-
Sheet." The stately dame had fallen on her knees, with her forehead
on the holy knees of the Old Maid, one hand upon the floor, and the
other pressed convulsively against her heart. It clutched a lock of
hair, once sable, now discolored with a greenish mould. As the priest
and layman advanced into the chamber, the Old Maid's features assumed
such a resemblance of shifting expression, that they trusted to hear
the whole mystery explained, by a single word. But it was only the
shadow of a tattered curtain, waving betwixt the dead face and the
moonlight.

"Both dead!" said the venerable man. "Then who shall divulge the
secret? Methinks it glimmers to and fro in my mind, like the light
and shadow across the Old Maid's face. And now't is gone!"