There were three white-bearded gentlemen -- Mr. Medbourne , Colonel Killigrew and Mr. Gascoigne -- and a withered gentlewoman whose name was the widow Wycherly . They were all melancholy old creatures who had been unfortunate in life , and whose greatest misfortune it was that they were not long ago in their graves . Mr. Medbourne , in the vigor of his age , had been a prosperous merchant , but had lost his all by a frantic speculation , and was now little better than a mendicant . Colonel Killigrew had wasted his best years and his health and substance in the pursuit of sinful pleasures which had given birth to a brood of pains , such as the gout and divers other torments of soul and body . Mr. Gascoigne was a ruined politician , a man of evil fame -- or , at least , had been so till time had buried him from the knowledge of the present generation and made him obscure instead of infamous . As for the widow Wycherly , tradition tells us that she was a great beauty in her day , but for a long while past she had lived in deep seclusion on account of certain scandalous stories which had prejudiced the gentry of the town against her . It is a circumstance worth mentioning that each of these three old gentlemen -- Mr. Medbourne , Colonel Killigrew and Mr. Gascoigne -- were early lovers of the widow Wycherly , and had once been on the point of cutting each other 's throats for her sake . And before proceeding farther I will merely hint that Dr. Heidegger and all his four guests were sometimes thought to be a little beside themselves , as is not infrequently the case with old people when worried either by present troubles or woeful recollections . `` My dear old friends , '' said Dr. Heidegger , motioning them to be seated , `` I am desirous of your assistance in one of those little experiments with which I amuse myself here in my study . '' If all stories were true , Dr. Heidegger 's study must have been a very curious place . It was a dim , old-fashioned chamber festooned with cobwebs and besprinkled with antique dust . Around the walls stood several oaken bookcases , the lower shelves of which were filled with rows of gigantic folios and black-letter quartos , and the upper with little parchment-covered duodecimos . Over the central bookcase was a bronze bust of Hippocrates , with which , according to some authorities , Dr. Heidegger was accustomed to hold consultations in all difficult cases of his practice . In the obscurest corner of the room stood a tall and narrow oaken closet with its door ajar , within which doubtfully appeared a skeleton . Between two of the bookcases hung a looking-glass , presenting its high and dusty plate within a tarnished gilt frame . Among many wonderful stories related of this mirror , it was fabled that the spirits of all the doctor 's deceased patients dwelt within its verge and would stare him in the face whenever he looked thitherward . The opposite side of the chamber was ornamented with the full-length portrait of a young lady arrayed in the faded magnificence of silk , satin and brocade , and with a visage as faded as her dress . Above half a century ago Dr. Heidegger had been on the point of marriage with this young lady , but , being affected with some slight disorder , she had swallowed one of her lover 's prescriptions and died on the bridal-evening . The greatest curiosity of the study remains to be mentioned : it was a ponderous folio volume bound in black leather , with massive silver clasps . There were no letters on the back , and nobody could tell the title of the book .
But it was well known to be a book XXXXX magic , and once , when a chambermaid had lifted it merely to brush away the dust , the skeleton had rattled in its closet , the picture of the young lady had stepped one foot upon the floor and several ghastly faces had peeped forth from the mirror , while the brazen head of Hippocrates frowned and said , `` Forbear ! ''
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