upulous among the villagers, whom intense curiosity had endowed
with a morbid courage and resolution. Even this proceeding led to no
results whatever, but increased rather than diminished the mystery.

The expertest eavesdroppers who had listened at the door, brought away
no information with them for their pains. Some declared that when the
ladies held any conversation together, they spoke in so low a tone that
it was impossible to distinguish a word they said. Others, of more
imaginative temperament, protested, on the contrary, that their voices
were perfectly audible, but that the language they talked was some
mysterious or diabolical language of their own, incomprehensible to
everybody but themselves. One or two expert and daring spies had even
contrived to look in at them through the window, unperceived; but had
seen nothing uncommon, nothing supernatural,--nothing, in short, beyond
the spectacle of two ladies sitting quietly and silently by their own
fireside.

So matters went on, until one day universal agitation was excited in
the neighbourhood by a rumour that one of the ladies was dead. The
rustic authorities immediately repaired to the cottage, accompanied by a
long train of eager followers; and found that the report was true. The
surviving lady was seated by her companion's bedside, weeping over a
corpse. She spoke not a word; she never looked up at the villagers as
they entered. Question after question was put to her without ever
eliciting an answer; kind words were useless--even threats proved
equally inefficient: the lady still remained weeping by the corpse, and
still said nothing. Gradually her inexorable silence began to infect the
visitors to the cottage. For a few moments nothing was heard in the room
but the dash of the waterfall hard by, and the singing of birds in the
surrounding wood. Bitterly as the lady was weeping, it was now first
observed by everybody that she wept silently, that she never sobbed,
never even sighed under the oppression of her grief.

People began to urge each other, superstitiously, to leave the place. It
was determined that the corpse should be removed and buried; and that
afterwards some new expedient should be tried to induce the survivor of
the mysterious pair to abandon her inflexible silence. It was
anticipated that she would have made some sign, or spoken some few words
when they lifted the body from the bed on which it lay; but even this
proceeding produced no visib