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
back-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