Behind appeared another, and another pair,
as aged, as black, and mournful as the first. As they drew near, the
widow recognized in every face some trait of former friends, long
forgotten, but now returning, as if from their old graves, to warn her
to prepare a shroud; or, with purpose almost as unwelcome, to
exhibit their wrinkles and infirmity, and claim her as their companion
by the tokens of her own decay. Many a merry night had she danced with
them, in youth. And now, in joyless age, she felt that some withered
partner should request her hand, and all unite, in a dance of death,
to the music of the funeral bell.
While these aged mourners were passing up the aisle, it was
observed that, from pew to pew, the spectators shuddered with
irrepressible awe, as some object, hitherto concealed by the
intervening figures, came full in sight. Many turned away their faces;
others kept a fixed and rigid stare; and a young girl giggled
hysterically, and fainted with the laughter on her lips. When the
spectral procession approached the altar, each couple separated, and
slowly diverged, till, in the centre, appeared a form, that had been
worthily ushered in with all this gloomy pomp, the death knell, and
the funeral.
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