A young man invited a young woman to a formal dance. But she was very poor, and she could not afford to buy the evening gown she needed for such an occasion.
"Maybe you can rent a dress," her mother said. So she went to a pawnshop not far from where she lived. There she found a white satin evening gown in her size. She looked lovely in it, and she was able to rent it for very little.
When she arrived at the dance with her friend, she was so attractive, everyone wanted to meet her. She danced again and again and was having a wonderful time. But then she begain to feel dizzy and faint, and she asked her friend to take her home. "I think I have danced to much," she told him.
When she got home, she lay down on her bed. The next morning her mother found that her daughter had died. The docter did not understand what had caused her death. So he had the coroner perform an autopsy.
The coroner found out that she had been poisoned by embalming fluid. It had stopped her blood from flowing. There were traces of the fluid in her dress. He decided it had entered her skin when she perspired while she was dancing.
The pawnbroker said he bought the dress from an undertaker's helper. It had been used in a funeral for another young woman, and the helper had stolen it just before she was buried.

Thanks for reading! I got this story from Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark so it is not mine. I don't know who originally made up this story but it was collected for the book by Alvin Schwartz.