Over all
the features death and time had done their obliterating work.
The eyelids were closed. The hair on the skull, discoloured like
the hair on the face, had been burnt away in places. The bluish lips,
parted in a fixed grin, showed the double row of teeth.
By slow degrees, the hovering head (perfectly still when she
first saw it) began to descend towards Agnes as she lay beneath.
By slow degrees, that strange doubly-blended odour, which the
Commissioners had discovered in the vaults of the old palace--
which had sickened Francis Westwick in the bed-chamber of
the new hotel--spread its fetid exhalations over the room.
Downward and downward the hideous apparition made its slow progress,
until it stopped close over Agnes--stopped, and turned slowly,
so that the face of it confronted the upturned face of the woman in
the chair.
There was a pause. Then, a supernatural movement disturbed the rigid
repose of the dead face.
The closed eyelids opened slowly. The eyes revealed themselves,
bright with the glassy film of death--and fixed their dreadful look
on the woman in the chair.
Pages:
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250