of
gymnastics at the end of a chain, barking hoarsely, as if he had not
spared himself of late.

An elderly woman with red arms met us at the door, and, on a whisper
from the police-inspector, first shook her head, and then, in answer to
a further whisper, nodded at another door, and, a voice calling her from
within, hastily disappeared.

The inspector opened the door she had indicated and went in, I with him.
Charles, who had grown very grave, hung back with Ralph, who seemed too
much dazed to notice anything in heaven above or the earth beneath. The
door opened into an out-house, roughly paved with round stones, where
barrels, staves, and divers lumber had been put away. There was straw in
the farther end of it, out of which a yellow cat raised two gleaming
eyes, and then flew up a ladder against the wall, and disappeared among
the rafters. In the middle of the floor, lying a little apart, were
three figures with sheets over them. Instinctively we felt that we were
in the presence of death. I looked back at Charles and Ralph, who were
still standing outside in the falling snow. Charles was bareheaded, but
Ralph was looking absently in front of him, seeming conscious of
nothing. The inspector made me a sign. He had raised one of the sheets,
and now withdrew it altogether. My heart seemed to stand still. _It was
Aurelia!_ Aurelia changed in the last great change of all, but still
Aurelia. The fixed artificial color in the cheek consorted ill with the
bloodless pallor of the rest of the face, which was set in a look of
surprise and terror. She was altered beyond what should have been. She
looked several years older. But it was still Aurelia. Those little
gloved hands, tightly clinched, were the same which she had held to the
library fire as we talked the day before; even the dress was the same.
Alas! she had been in too great a hurry to change it before she left, or
her thin shoes. Poor little Aurelia! And then--I don't know how it was,
but in another moment Ralph was kneeling by her, bending over her,
taking the stiffened hands in his trembling clasp, imploring the deaf
ears to hear him, calling wildly to the pale lips to speak to him, which
had done with human speech. I could not bear it, and I turned away and
looked out through the open door at the snow falling. The inspector came
and stood beside me. In the silence which followed we could hear Charles
speaking gently from time to time; and when at last we both turne