u/Hodge1709

just came across the following description in the story Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment ( in Twice Told Tales by Hawthorne), published in 1837. It’s so quintessentially DA I thought I’d share:
If all stories were true, Doctor 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, Doctor 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 Doctor 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 of 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!" Such was Dr Heidegger’s study.

Edited to correct title

I was rereading S&S for the umpteenth time and for the first time noticed the following comment by Willoughby. He is explaining to Elinor why he left Barton so suddenly:

"...a circumstance occurred, an unlucky circumstance, to ruin all my resolution and with it all my comfort. A discovery took place,"--here he hesitated and looked down.--"Mrs. Smith had somehow or other been informed, I imagine by some distant relation, whose interest it was to deprive me of her favour, of an affair, a connection [i.e., his affair with Eliza]." In the ensuing conversation he says that Mrs. Smith demanded he either marry Eliza or be disinherited.

Until now it never occurred to me that the "distant relation" who spilled the beans was Colonel Brandon. The sentence is ambiguous, and I always assumed Willoughby was referring to some distant relation of his own. But how could any relative of his own have found out? OTOH Colonel Brandon is a "distant" relative of Eliza (probably first cousin once removed) and certainly would have been happy to deprive Willoughby of his inheritance.

Am I the only one who never got this before? I always find something new every time I reread Austen.

I'm glad the colonel got some measure of satisfaction against Willoughby! (since the duel didn't do the trick).