White as Wool [pp. 125-132]

1873.] WHITE AS WOOL. 125
phere accompanied us. After we had end of January, the house was ready for
been all over the house in silence-it occupancy, and, though it is in the hands
seemed impossible to speak-we came of agents, who have put a bill on it to
hack to the parlor, and for the first time attract attention-though the neighborRalph spoke. hood is unexceptionable, and the house
"I shall send to - to-morrow, ask itself a nice one-yet up to to-day, when
him to take everything there is here to I passed by it, no one, though many
his auction-room, and sell it for what have applied for permits to examine it,
it will bring. After that I shall have has ever returned to make an offer. Alworkmen put the house in order, paint, though Ralph stands prepared to sell it
paper, and repair; then try to sell it." under the market price, No. 119 now, at
"Shall you dispose of all the pict- the middle of March, remains deserted.
ures?" Evidently, all who enter it are affected
"Yes, everything. I would not own unpleasantly by the "evil atmosphere,"
a pin that had been here; and - as I and I fear that the mystery and the house
said ten years ago, though I have had to will still for many a year wear on Ralph
break my word-I shall never, if I can Fraser's mind. I only know that after
help it, see the place again. An evil at- that afternoon's visit, nothing would inmosphere clings to it. Come, Harry, duce me to enter it again, nor would I
let us go." take it as a gift. Still I wonder what is
Ralph did as he had said. By the the story connected with that fatal parlor.
WHITE AS WOOL.
HE is my husband's niece-not my astonishment at the dawning spirit my daughter, as you supposed, uality in so unlooked-for a quarter, I inthough I do not wonder at the mistake. voluntarily said,`There must he someHer existence, a dire misfortune of it- thing in it, if he, who sees so little, says
self to some, has proved a blessing to so.' The nurse had just come that mornus. We love her as though she were ing, and, for the first moment after my
our own." husband's remark, I felt that if our fam "`Misfortune to some.' What do you ily physician had less of a mania for the
mean?" asked my old friend. immediate employment of needy nurses,
"It is a long story. Shall I tell it?" he would be quite as satisfactory as a
"By all means," she replied. doctor, and much more agreeable as a
"It all happened ten years ago. I man. With that thought as a beginhad been sick for several months, when fling, others fully as disagreeable followone morning, as I lay feeling weak and ed fast enough. My mood became dequite ill after a bad night, my husband cidedly morbid and censorious. A nurse
said that there was something unaccount- bristling with off&nsive peculiarities had
able in the manner of my nurse. Men been introduced into my household by
of action are not given to lay much stress one of a fraternity which, at best, was
upon`impressions;' in fact, only wom- coi~nposed of experimentalists. Grieven and idealists give heed to the intan- ances, and many of them, had I borne
gible stuff revealed by the lightning col- from their hands, and this last offense
lision of one soul with another, and, in was too much. Doctors were failures,