the tomb in the daytime , and when wreathed with fresh flowers , had looked grim and gruesome enough , but now , some days afterwards , when the flowers hung lank and dead , their whites turning to rust and their greens to browns , when the spider and the beetle had resumed their accustomed dominance , when the time-discoloured stone , and dust-encrusted mortar , and rusty , dank iron , and tarnished brass , and clouded silver-plating gave back the feeble glimmer of a candle , the effect was more miserable and sordid than could have been imagined .