"Within  that  chamber,"  observed  he,  "a  whole
life-time  since,  did  I  sit  by  the  death-bed  of  a  goodly
young  man,  who,  being  now  at  the  last  gasp  "

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


THE    WHITE   OLD  MAID.  427

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-backed
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  011
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  dis
colored  with  a  greenish  mould.  As  the  priest  and  lay
man  advanced  into  the  chamber,  the  Old  Maid's  feat
ures  assumed  such  a  semblance  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.
u  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  !  "


PETER  GOLDTHWAITE'S  TREASURE.
