In spite of Fancy 's most potent spell , I can see only an old dame cowering over the fire , a picture of decay and desolation , while the November blast roars at her in the chimney and fitful showers rush suddenly against the window . Yet there was a time when Rose Grafton -- such was the pretty maiden-name of Nurse Toothaker -- possessed beauty that would have gladdened this dim and dismal chamber as with sunshine . It won for her the heart of Edward Fane , who has since made so great a figure in the world and is now a grand old gentleman with powdered hair and as gouty as a lord . These early lovers thought to have walked hand in hand through life . They had wept together for Edward 's little sister Mary , whom Rose tended in her sickness -- partly because she was the sweetest child that ever lived or died , but more for love of him . She was but three years old . Being such an infant , Death could not embody his terrors in her little corpse ; nor did Rose fear to touch the dead child 's brow , though chill , as she curled the silken hair around it , nor to take her tiny hand and clasp a flower within its fingers . Afterward , when she looked through the pane of glass in the coffin-lid and beheld Mary 's face , it seemed not so much like death or life as like a wax-work wrought into the perfect image of a child asleep and dreaming of its mother 's smile . Rose thought her too fair a thing to be hidden in the grave , and wondered that an angel did not snatch up little Mary 's coffin and bear the slumbering babe to heaven and bid her wake immortal . But when the sods were laid on little Mary , the heart of Rose was troubled . She shuddered at the fantasy that in grasping the child 's cold fingers her virgin hand had exchanged a first greeting with mortality and could never lose the earthy taint . How many a greeting since ! But as yet she was a fair young girl with the dewdrops of fresh feeling in her bosom , and , instead of `` Rose '' -- which seemed too mature a name for her half-opened beauty -- her lover called her `` Rosebud . '' The rosebud was destined never to bloom for Edward Fane . His mother was a rich and haughty dame with all the aristocratic prejudices of colonial times . She scorned Rose Grafton 's humble parentage and caused her son to break his faith , though , had she let him choose , he would have prized his Rosebud above the richest diamond . The lovers parted , and have seldom met again . Both may have visited the same mansions , but not at the same time , for one was bidden to the festal hall and the other to the sick-chamber ; he was the guest of Pleasure and Prosperity , and she of Anguish . Rose , after their separation , was long secluded within the dwelling of Mr. Toothaker , whom she married with the revengeful hope of breaking her false lover 's heart . She went to her bridegroom 's arms with bitterer tears , they say , than young girls ought to shed at the threshold of the bridal-chamber .
Yet , though her husband 's head was getting gray and his heart had been chilled with an autumnal frost , XXXXX soon began to love him , and wondered at her own conjugal affection .
Edward Grafton Rose Rosebud Toothaker bridal-chamber coffin-lid old terrors wax-work