The guest was admitted into a parlor communicating by a central door with an interior room of the same size . As the first apartment was empty , he passed to the entrance of the second , within which his eyes were greeted by those living personages , as well as their pictured representatives , who had long been the objects of so singular an interest . He involuntarily paused on the threshold . They had not perceived his approach . Walter and Elinor were standing before the portraits , whence the former had just flung back the rich and voluminous folds of the silken curtain , holding its golden tassel with one hand , while the other grasped that of his bride . The pictures , concealed for months , gleamed forth again in undiminished splendor , appearing to throw a sombre light across the room rather than to be disclosed by a borrowed radiance . That of Elinor had been almost prophetic . A pensiveness , and next a gentle sorrow , had successively dwelt upon her countenance , deepening with the lapse of time into a quiet anguish . A mixture of affright would now have made it the very expression of the portrait . Walter 's face was moody and dull or animated only by fitful flashes which left a heavier darkness for their momentary illumination . He looked from Elinor to her portrait , and thence to his own , in the contemplation of which he finally stood absorbed . The painter seemed to hear the step of Destiny approaching behind him on its progress toward its victims . A strange thought darted into his mind . Was not his own the form in which that Destiny had embodied itself , and he a chief agent of the coming evil which he had foreshadowed ? Still , Walter remained silent before the picture , communing with it as with his own heart and abandoning himself to the spell of evil influence that the painter had cast upon the features . Gradually his eyes kindled , while as Elinor watched the increasing wildness of his face her own assumed a look of terror ; and when , at last , he turned upon her , the resemblance of both to their portraits was complete . `` Our fate is upon us ! '' howled Walter . `` Die ! '' Drawing a knife , he sustained her as she was sinking to the ground , and aimed it at her bosom .
In the action and in the look and attitude of each the painter beheld the figures XXXXX his sketch .
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