-God's in
his heaven and all's right with the world, and if you discuss it, the
devil may creep in--I've read Emerson's Essays, myself. I know what
you think about medicine and surgery and hygiene--you think Emerson!
And that's all right, as far as it goes. But just for ten minutes,
between you and me, what's the matter? You can keep on being serene,
after that, all you want. Come now--as man to man!'

"She flattened her lips a little and tried not to scowl.

"'Put it that I don't like old houses, doctor,' she said finally.

"'Ah! House haunted?' I suggested, to tease her a little.

"She turned on me.

"'You said it, not I,' she answered, 'but it is true. The house is
haunted, doctor, and if I lived there a day longer, I couldn't do my
work. I didn't wish to discuss it--you know we don't believe in
that--but you meant to do me a service. It's a crime to rent that
house. It's slimy. It crawls.'

"'Slimy!' I cried. 'Why the agent told me that the cellar was new
cemented, all whitewashed, every room new papered, fresh matting, hard
wood on the lower floor, and I attended to the plumbing myself! It was
gone over thoroughly three years ago--there must have been a thousand
dollars put into it. It hadn't been lived in for years before that.
Slimy!'

"'You don't understand me,' she said quietly.

"'For heaven's sake, what haunts it, then? Who's the ghost?' I cried
testily.

"'Evil,' she said slowly, 'evil thought, evil lives ... you breathe it
in ... it tangles you ... another night there ... I should have no more
power, absolutely--I could help nobody. I must ask you not to refer to
it again, please. I should not have mentioned it. How much do I owe
you?'

"'You owe me nothing, of course,' I said shortly. 'I'll return you the
amount of your cheque this afternoon. I'll move into that house,
myself.'

"'You will be making a mistake,' she said very placidly, and left the
office.

"It took me about forty-eight hours to make my arrangements. It was
hot summer weather, fortunately, and I sent my wife off to the
mountains, started in to have my own house renovated and decorated, as
an excuse, left the housekeeper in charge there and moved my office
paraphernalia into that old house with the evergreen hedge. My wife
was a Southern woman and we always had darky servants. I took the
waitress with me, a quiet little mulatto we'd had for more than a year,
and sent for her mother, a very capable woman