Being now more thoroughly awake to their present purpose , he took his staff and struck forcibly on the floor , till there came an echo from each deserted chamber , but no menial to answer their summons . They therefore walked along the passage , and again paused , opposite to the great front window , through which was seen the crowd in the shadow and partial moonlight of the street beneath . On their right hand was the open door of a chamber , and a closed one on their left . The clergyman pointed his cane to the carved oak panel of the latter . `` Within that chamber , '' observed he , `` a whole lifetime since , did I sit by the death-bed of a goodly young man who , being now at the last gasp -- '' Apparently , there was some powerful excitement in the ideas which had now flashed across his mind . He snatched the torch from his companion 's hand , and threw open the door with such sudden violence that the flame was extinguished , leaving them no other light than the moonbeams which fell through two windows into the spacious chamber . It was sufficient to discover all that could be known . In a high-backed oaken arm-chair , upright , with her hands clasped across her breast and her head thrown back , sat the Old Maid in the Winding-Sheet . The stately dame had fallen on her knees with her forehead on the holy knees of the Old Maid , one hand upon the floor and the other pressed convulsively against her heart . It clutched a lock of hair -- once sable , now discolored with a greenish mould . As the priest and layman advanced into the chamber the Old Maid 's features assumed such a semblance of shifting expression that they trusted to hear the whole mystery explained by a single word . But it was only the shadow of a tattered curtain waving betwixt the dead face and the moonlight . `` Both dead ! '' said the venerable man . `` Then who shall divulge the secret ? Methinks it glimmers to and fro in my mind like the light and shadow across the Old Maid 's face . And now 't is gone ! '' PETER GOLDTHWAITE 'S TREASURE . `` And so , Peter , you wo n't even consider of the business ? '' said Mr. John Brown , buttoning his surtout over the snug rotundity of his person and drawing on his gloves .
`` You positively refuse XXXXX let me have this crazy old house , and the land under and adjoining , at the price named ? ''
As Within along beneath of on that till to upon