He bent upon her the eyes of the portrait above the door. How changed! how like! There seemed upon his throat the stain of blood.
The widow, fascinated, frozen still, let fall her arms of ivory, and, as she gazed, her beautiful neck, strained in horror and astonishment, received upon its snow the rapture of Diana's shine.
The effigy, so like her husband, yet so altered, reached towards her his hand, on which a diamond caught the moon, and seemed to drink it. A wail, like the others she had heard, broke from his lips, and said the words:
"To lose those charms! To lose that heart! O God!"
As thus he stood, ghastly and supplicating, as if he would fall and die upon her threshold, another hand came forward in the moonlight, and drew the door between them. A voice she had not heard tenderly exclaimed:
"I love him as I never loved A male!"
"It is my husband's spirit," the widow breathed. "I cannot marry."
She swooned upon her floor, before the dying fire.