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diff --git a/9214.txt b/9214.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a8a949b --- /dev/null +++ b/9214.txt @@ -0,0 +1,819 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The White Old Maid (From "Twice Told Tales"), by +Nathaniel Hawthorne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The White Old Maid (From "Twice Told Tales") + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Posting Date: December 2, 2010 [EBook #9214] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: August 23, 2003 +Last Updated: February 5, 2007 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE OLD MAID *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + TWICE TOLD TALES + + THE WHITE OLD MAID + + By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + +The moonbeams came through two deep and narrow windows, and showed a +spacious chamber, richly furnished in an antique fashion. From one +lattice, the shadow of the diamond panes was thrown upon the floor; +the ghostly light, through the other, slept upon a bed, falling +between the heavy silken curtains, and illuminating the face of a +young man. But, how quietly the slumberer lay! how pale his features! +and how like a shroud the sheet was wound about his frame! Yes; it +was a corpse, in its burial-clothes. + +Suddenly, the fixed features seemed to move, with dark emotion. +Strange fantasy! It was but the shadow of the fringed curtain, waving +betwixt the dead face and the moonlight, as the door of the chamber +opened, and a girl stole softly to the bedside. Was there delusion in +the moonbeams, or did her gesture and her eye betray a gleam of +triumph, as she bent over the pale corpse-pale as itself--and pressed +her living lips to the cold ones of the dead? As she drew back from +that long kiss, her features writhed, as if a proud heart were +fighting with its anguish. Again it seemed that the features of the +corpse had moved responsive to her own. Still an illusion! The +silken curtain had waved, a second time, betwixt the dead face and the +moonlight, as another fair young girl unclosed the door, and glided, +ghost-like, to the bedside. There the two maidens stood, both +beautiful, with the pale beauty of the dead between them. But she, who +had first entered, was proud and stately; and the other, a soft and +fragile thing. + +"Away!" cried the lofty one. "Thou hadst him living! The dead is +mine!" + +"Thine!" returned the other, shuddering. "Well hast thou spoken! +The dead is thine!" + +The proud girl started, and stared into her face, with a ghastly look. +But a wild and mournful expression passed across the features of the +gentle one; and, weak and helpless, she sank down on the bed, her head +pillowed beside that of the corpse, and her hair mingling with his +dark locks. A creature of hope and joy, the first draught of sorrow +had bewildered her. + +"Edith!" cried her rival. + +Edith groaned, as with a sudden compression of the heart; and removing +her cheek from the dead youth's pillow, she stood upright, fearfully +encountering the eyes of the lofty girl. + +"Wilt thou betray me?" said the latter, calmly. + +"Till the dead bid me speak, I will be silent," answered Edith. "Leave +us alone together! Go, and live many years, and then return, and tell +me of thy life. He, too, will be here! Then, if thou tellest of +sufferings more than death, we will both forgive thee." + +"And what shall be the token?" asked the proud girl, as if her heart +acknowledged a meaning in these wild words. + +"This lock of hair," said Edith, lifting one of the dark, clustering +curls, that lay heavily on the dead man's brow. + +The two maidens joined their hands over the bosom of the corpse, and +appointed a day and hour, far, far in time to come, for their next +meeting in that chamber. The statelier girl gave one deep look at the +motionless countenance, and departed,--yet turned again and trembled, +ere she closed the door, almost believing that her dead lover frowned +upon her. And Edith, too! Was not her white form fading into the +moonlight? Scorning her own weakness, she went forth, and perceived +that a negro slave was waiting in the passage, with a wax light, which +he held between her face and his own, and regarded her, as she +thought, with an ugly expression of merriment. Lifting his torch on +high, the slave lighted her down the staircase, and undid the portal +of the mansion. The young clergyman of the town had just ascended the +steps, and bowing to the lady, passed in without a word. + + +Years, many years rolled on; the world seemed new again, so much older +was it grown, since the night when those pale girls had clasped their +hands across the bosom of the corpse. In the interval, a lonely woman +had passed from youth to extreme age, and was known by all the town, +as the "Old Maid in the Winding-Sheet." A taint of insanity had +affected her whole life, but so quiet, sad, and gentle, so utterly +free from violence, that she was suffered to pursue her harmless +fantasies, unmolested by the world, with whose business or pleasures +she had naught to do. She dwelt alone, and never came into the +daylight, except to follow funerals. Whenever a corpse was borne +along the street, in sunshine, rain, or snow, whether a pompous train, +of the rich and proud, thronged after it, or few and humble were the +mourners, behind them came the lonely woman, in a long, white garment, +which the people called her shroud. She took no place among the +kindred or the friends, but stood at the door to hear the funeral +prayer, and walked in the rear of the procession, as one whose earthly +charge it was to haunt the house of mourning, and be the shadow of +affliction, and see that the dead were duly buried. So long had this +been her custom, that the inhabitants of the town deemed her a part of +every funeral, as much as the coffin pall, or the very corpse itself, +and augured ill of the sinner's destiny, unless the "Old Maid in the +Winding-Sheet" came gliding, like a ghost, behind. Once, it is said, +she affrighted a bridal party, with her pale presence, appearing +suddenly in the illuminated hall, just as the priest was uniting a +false maid to a wealthy man, before her lover had been dead a year. +Evil was the omen to that marriage! Sometimes she stole forth by +moonlight, and visited the graves of venerable Integrity, and wedded +Love, and virgin Innocence, and every spot where the ashes of a kind +and faithful heart were mouldering. Over the hillocks of those favored +dead would she stretch out her arms, with a gesture, as if she were +scattering seeds; and many believed that she brought them from the +garden of Paradise; for the graves, which she had visited, were green +beneath the snow, and covered with sweet flowers from April to +November. Her blessing was better than a holy verse upon the +tombstone. Thus wore away her long, sad, peaceful, and fantastic +life, till few were so old as she, and the people of later generations +wondered how the dead had ever been buried, or mourners had endured +their grief, without the "Old Maid in the Winding Sheet." + +Still, years went on, and still she followed funerals, and was not yet +summoned to her own festival of death. One afternoon, the great +street of the town was all alive with business and bustle, though the +sun now gilded only the upper half of the church-spire, having left +the housetops and loftiest trees in shadow. The scene was cheerful +and animated, in spite of the sombre shade between the high brick +buildings. Here were pompous merchants, in white wigs and laced +velvet; the bronzed faces of sea-captains; the foreign garb and air of +Spanish creoles; and the disdainful port of natives of Old England; +all contrasted with the rough aspect of one or two hack settlers, +negotiating sales of timber, from forests where axe had never sounded. +Sometimes a lady passed, swelling roundly forth in an embroidered +petticoat, balancing her steps in high-heeled shoes, and courtesying, +with lofty grace, to the punctilious obeisances of the gentlemen. The +life of the town seemed to have its very centre not far from an old +mansion, that stood somewhat back from the pavement, surrounded by +neglected grass, with a strange air of loneliness, rather deepened +than dispelled by the throng so near it. Its site would have been +suitably occupied by a magnificent Exchange, or a brick block, +lettered all over with various signs; or the large house itself might +have made a noble tavern, with the "King's Arms" swinging before it, +and guests in every chamber, instead of the present solitude. But, +owing to some dispute about the right of inheritance, the mansion had +been long without a tenant, decaying from year to year, and throwing +the stately gloom of its shadow over the busiest part of the town. +Such was the scene, and such the time, when a figure, unlike any that +have been described, was observed at a distance down the street. + +"I espy a strange sail, yonder," remarked a Liverpool captain; "that +woman in the long, white garment!" + +The sailor seemed much struck by the object, as were several others, +who, at the same moment, caught a glimpse of the figure that had +attracted his notice. Almost immediately, the various topics of +conversation gave place to speculations, in an undertone, on this +unwonted occurrence. + +"Can there be a funeral, so late this afternoon?" inquired some. + +They looked for the signs of death at every door,--the sexton, the +hearse, the assemblage of black-clad relatives,--all that makes up the +woeful pomp of funerals. They raised their eyes, also, to the sun-gilt +spire of the church, and wondered that no clang proceeded from its +bell, which had always tolled till now, when this figure appeared in +the light of day. But none had heard that a corpse was to be borne to +its home that afternoon, nor was there any token of a funeral, except +the apparition of the "Old Maid in the Winding-Sheet." + +"What may this portend?" asked each man of his neighbor. + +All smiled as they put the question, yet with a certain trouble in +their eyes, as if pestilence, or some other wide calamity, were +prognosticated by the untimely intrusion among the living, of one +whose presence had always been associated with death and woe. What a +comet is to the earth, was that sad woman to the town. Still she +moved on, while the hum of surprise was hushed at her approach, and +the proud and the humble stood aside, that her white garment might not +wave against them. It was a long, loose robe, of spotless purity. +Its wearer appeared very old, pale, emaciated, and feeble, yet glided +onward, without the unsteady pace of extreme age. At one point of her +course, a littly rosy boy burst forth from a door, and ran, with open +arms, towards the ghostly woman, seeming to expect a kiss from her +bloodless lips. She made a slight pause, fixing her eye upon him with +an expression of no earthly sweetness, so that the child shivered and +stood awe-struck, rather than affrighted, while the Old Maid passed +on. Perhaps her garment might have been polluted even by an infant's +touch; perhaps her kiss would have been death to the sweet boy, within +a year. + +"She is but a shadow," whispered the superstitious. "The child put +forth his arms and could not grasp her robe!" + +The wonder was increased, when the Old Maid passed beneath the porch +of the deserted mansion, ascended the moss-covered steps, lifted the +iron knocker, and gave three raps. The people could only conjecture, +that some old remembrance, troubling her bewildered brain, had +impelled the poor woman hither to visit the friends of her youth; all +gone from their home, long since and forever, unless their ghosts +still haunted it,--fit company for the "Old Maid in the +Winding-Sheet." An elderly man approached the steps, and reverently +uncovering his gray locks, essayed to explain the matter. + +"None, Madam," said he, "have dwelt in this house these fifteen years +agone,--no, not since the death of old Colonel Fenwicke, whose funeral +you may remember to have followed. His heirs being ill-agreed among +themselves, have let the mansion-house go to ruin." + +The Old Maid looked slowly round, with a slight gesture of one hand, +and a finger of the other upon her lip, appearing more shadow-like +than ever, in the obscurity of the porch. But again she lifted the +hammer, and gave, this time, a single rap. Could it be that a +footstep was now heard, coming down the staircase of the old mansion, +which all conceived to have been so long untenanted? Slowly, feebly, +yet heavily, like the pace of an aged and infirm person, the step +approached, more distinct on every downward stair, till it reached the +portal. The bar fell on the inside; the door was opened. One upward +glance, towards the church-spire, whence the sunshine had just faded, +was the last that the people saw of the "Old Maid in the Winding-Sheet." + +"Who undid the door?" asked many. + +This question, owing to the depth of shadow beneath the porch, no one +could satisfactorily answer. Two or three aged men, while protesting +against an inference, which might be drawn, affirmed that the person +within was a negro, and bore a singular resemblance to old Caesar, +formerly a slave in the house, but freed by death some thirty years +before. + +"Her summons has waked up a servant of the old family," said one, half +seriously. + +"Let us wait here," replied another. "More guests will knock at the +door, anon. But the gate of the graveyard should be thrown open!" + +Twilight had overspread the town, before the crowd began to separate, +or the comments on this incident were exhausted. One after another +was wending his way homeward, when a coach--no common spectacle in +those days--drove slowly into the street. It was an old-fashioned +equipage, hanging close to the ground, with arms on the panels, a +footman behind, and a grave, corpulent coachman seated high in +front,--the whole giving an idea of solemn state and dignity. There +was something awful, in the heavy rumbling of the wheels. The coach +rolled down the street, till, coming to the gateway of the deserted +mansion, it drew up, and the footman sprang to the ground. + +"Whose grand coach is this?" asked a very inquisitive body. + +The footman made no reply, but ascended the steps of the old house, +gave three raps with the iron hammer, and returned to open the +coach-door. An old man possessed of the heraldic lore so common in +that day examined the shield of arms on the panel. + +"Azure, a lion's head erased, between three flower-deluces," said he; +then whispered the name of the family to whom these bearings belonged. +The last inheritor of its honors was recently dead, after a long +residence amid the splendor of the British court, where his birth and +wealth had given him no mean station. "He left no child," continued +the herald, "and these arms, being in a lozenge, betoken that the +coach appertains to his widow." + +Further disclosures, perhaps, might have been made, had not the +speaker suddenly been struck dumb, by the stern eye of an ancient +lady, who thrust forth her head from the coach, preparing to descend. +As she emerged, the people saw that her dress was magnificent, and her +figure dignified, in spite of age and infirmity,--a stately ruin, but +with a look, at once, of pride and wretchedness. Her strong and rigid +features had an awe about them, unlike that of the white Old Maid, but +as of something evil. She passed up the steps, leaning on a gold-headed +cane; the door swung open, as she ascended,--and the light of a +torch glittered on the embroidery of her dress, and gleamed on the +pillars of the porch. After a momentary pause--a glance backwards--and +then a desperate effort--she went in. The decipherer of the coat +of arms had ventured up the lowest step, and shrinking back +immediately, pale and tremulous, affirmed that the torch was held by +the very image of old Caesar. + +"But, such a hideous grin," added he, "was never seen on the face of +mortal man, black or white! It will haunt me till my dying day." + +Meantime, the coach had wheeled round, with a prodigious clatter on +the pavement, and rumbled up the street, disappearing in the twilight, +while the ear still tracked its course. Scarcely was it gone, when +the people began to question whether the coach and attendants, the +ancient lady, the spectre of old Caesar, and the Old Maid herself, +were not all a strangely combined delusion, with some dark purport in +its mystery. The whole town was astir, so that, instead of +dispersing, the crowd continually increased, and stood gazing up at +the windows of the mansion, now silvered by the brightening moon. The +elders, glad to indulge the narrative propensity of age, told of the +long-faded splendor of the family, the entertainments they had given, +and the guests, the greatest of the land, and even titled and noble +ones from abroad, who had passed beneath that portal. These graphic +reminiscences seemed to call up the ghosts of those to whom they +referred. So strong was the impression, on some of the more +imaginative hearers, that two or three were seized with trembling +fits, at one and the same moment, protesting that they had distinctly +heard three other raps of the iron knocker. + +"Impossible!" exclaimed others. "See! The moon shines beneath the +porch, and shows every part of it, except in the narrow shade of that +pillar. There is no one there!" + +"Did not the door open?" whispered one of these fanciful persons. + +"Didst thou see it, too?" said his companion, in a startled tone. + +But the general sentiment was opposed to the idea, that a third +visitant had made application at the door of the deserted house. A +few, however, adhered to this new marvel, and even declared that a red +gleam, like that of a torch, had shone through the great front window, +as if the negro were lighting a guest up the staircase. This, too, +was pronounced a mere fantasy. But, at once, the whole multitude +started, and each man beheld his own terror painted in the faces of +all the rest. + +"What an awful thing is this!" cried they. + +A shriek, too fearfully distinct for doubt, had been heard within the +mansion, breaking forth suddenly, and succeeded by a deep stillness, +as if a heart had burst in giving it utterance. The people knew not +whether to fly from the very sight of the house, or to rush trembling +in, and search out the strange mystery. Amid their confusion and +affright, they were somewhat reassured by the appearance of their +clergyman, a venerable patriarch, and equally a saint, who had taught +them and their fathers the way to heaven, for more than the space of +an ordinary lifetime. He was a reverend figure, with long, white hair +upon his shoulders, a white beard upon his breast, and a back so bent +over his staff, that he seemed to be looking downward, continually, as +if to choose a proper grave for his weary frame. It was some time +before the good old man, being deaf, and of impaired intellect, could +be made to comprehend such portions of the affair as were +comprehensible at all. But, when possessed of the facts, his energies +assumed unexpected vigor. + +"Verily," said the old gentleman, "it will be fitting that I enter the +mansion-house of the worthy Colonel Fenwicke, lest any harm should +have befallen that true Christian woman, whom ye call the 'Old Maid in +the Winding-Sheet.'" + +Behold, then, the venerable clergyman ascending the steps of the +mansion, with a torch-bearer behind him. It was the elderly man, who +had spoken to the Old Maid, and the same who had afterwards explained +the shield of arms, and recognized the features of the negro. Like +their predecessors, they gave three raps, with the iron hammer. + +"Old Caesar cometh not," observed the priest. "Well, I wot, he no +longer doth service in this mansion." + +"Assuredly, then, it was something worse, in old Caesar's likeness!" +said the other adventurer. + +"Be it as God wills," answered the clergyman. "See! my strength, +though it be much decayed, hath sufficed to open this heavy door. Let +us enter, and pass up the staircase." + +Here occurred a singular exemplification of the dreamy state of a very +old man's mind. As they ascended the wide flight of stairs, the aged +clergyman appeared to move with caution, occasionally standing aside, +and oftener bending his head, as it were in salutation, thus +practising all the gestures of one who makes his way through a throng. +Reaching the head of the staircase, he looked around, with sad and +solemn benignity, laid aside his staff, bared his hoary locks, and was +evidently on the point of commencing a prayer. + +"Reverend Sir," said his attendant, who conceived this a very suitable +prelude to their further search, "would it not be well, that the +people join with us in prayer?" + +"Well-a-day!" cried the old clergyman, staring strangely around him. +"Art thou here with me, and none other? Verily, past times were +present to me, and I deemed that I was to make a funeral prayer, as +many a time heretofore, from the head of this staircase. + +"Of a truth, I saw the shades of many that are gone. Yea, I have +prayed at their burials, one after another, and the 'Old Maid in the +Winding-Sheet' hath seen them to their graves!" + +Being now more thoroughly awake to their present purpose, he took his +staff, and struck forcibly on the floor, till there came an echo from +each deserted chamber, but no menial, to answer their summons. They +therefore walked along the passage, and again paused, opposite to the +great front window, through which was seen the crowd, in the shadow +and partial moonlight of the street beneath. On their right hand was +the open door of a chamber, and a closed one on their left. The +clergyman pointed his cane to the carved oak panel of the latter. + +"Within that chamber," observed he, "a whole lifetime 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 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 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!" + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The White Old Maid (From "Twice Told +Tales"), by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE OLD MAID *** + +***** This file should be named 9214.txt or 9214.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/2/1/9214/ + +Produced by David Widger. 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