Eliza Laurance was really buried here . `` She went home soon after . Before she went she exacted a promise from Mother that the old chest should be left at the Grange unopened until she came for it herself . But she never came back , and I do not think she ever intended to , and I never saw her again . `` That is the story of the old chest . It was all over so long ago -- the heartbreak and the misery -- but it all seems to come back to me now . Poor Eliza ! '' My own eyes were full of tears as Aunt Winnifred went down the stairs , leaving me sitting dreamily there in the sunset light , with the old yellowed bridal veil across my lap and the portrait of Eliza Laurance in my hand . Around me were the relics of her pitiful story -- the old , oft-repeated story of a faithless love and a woman 's broken heart -- the gown she had worn , the slippers in which she had danced light-heartedly at her betrothal ball , her fan , her pearls , her gloves -- and it somehow seemed to me as if I were living in those old years myself , as if the love and happiness , the betrayal and pain were part of my own life . Presently Aunt Winnifred came back through the twilight shadows . `` Let us put all these things back in their grave , Amy , '' she said . `` They are of no use to anyone now . The linen might be bleached and used , I dare say -- but it would seem like a sacrilege . It was Mother 's wedding present to Eliza . And the pearls -- would you care to have them , Amy ? '' `` Oh , no , no , '' I said with a little shiver . `` I would never wear them , Aunt Winnifred . I should feel like a ghost if I did . Put everything back just as we found it -- only her portrait . I would like to keep that . ''
Reverently we put gowns and letters and trinkets back into the old blue XXXXX .
Aunt chest everything ghost grave heart promise sacrilege shadows wedding