âThe White Old Maidâ by #NathanielHawthorne is his most tantalizing narrative experiments.
The tableau is memorably #gothic: illuminated by moonlight, through the window of a mansion, the corpse of a young man who lies upon his bed, flanked by two beautiful young womenâone âproud and stately,â whom he had not chosen, âand the other, a soft and fragile thing,â who was destined to be his wife. The secondâand finalâtableau shows us the same two women reunited in old age.