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Page 52
"As for my selling a house I paid only five thousand for when it's
worth twenty-five, for any such nonsense as this, I won't!"
David gave one stride toward the black veil, but it rose from the
floor and moved away before him across the room at exactly the same
height as if suspended from a woman's head. He pursued it,
clutching vainly, all around the room, then he swung himself on his
heel with an exclamation and the thing fell to the floor again in
the long heap. Then were heard hurrying feet on the stairs and
Adrianna burst into the room. She ran straight to her father and
clutched his arm; she tried to speak, but she chattered
unintelligibly; her face was blue. Her father shook her violently.
"Adrianna, do have more sense!" he cried.
"Oh, David, how can you talk so?" sobbed her mother.
"I can't help it. I'm mad!" said he with emphasis. "What has got
into this house and you all, anyhow?"
"What is it, Adrianna, poor child," asked her mother. "Only look
what has happened here."
"It's an earthquake," said her father staunchly; "nothing to be
afraid of."
"How do you account for THAT?" said Mrs. Townsend in an awful
voice, pointing to the veil.
Adrianna did not look--she was too engrossed with her own terrors.
She began to speak in a breathless voice.
"I--was--coming--by the vacant lot," she panted, "and--I--I--had my
new hat in a paper bag and--a parcel of blue ribbon, and--I saw a
crowd, an awful--oh! a whole crowd of people with white faces, as
if--they were dressed all in black."
"Where are they now?"
"I don't know. Oh!" Adrianna sank gasping feebly into a chair.
"Get her some water, David," sobbed her mother.
David rushed with an impatient exclamation out of the room and
returned with a glass of water which he held to his daughter's
lips.
"Here, drink this!" he said roughly.
"Oh, David, how can you speak so?" sobbed his wife.
"I can't help it. I'm mad clean through," said David.
Then there was a hard bound upstairs, and George entered. He was
very white, but he grinned at them with an appearance of unconcern.
"Hullo!" he said in a shaking voice, which he tried to control.
"What on earth's to pay in that vacant lot now?"
"Well, what is it?" demanded his father.
"Oh, nothing, only--well, there are lights over it exactly as if
there was a house there, just about where the windows would be. It
looked as if you could walk right in, but when you look close there
are those old dried-up weeds rattling away on the ground the same
as ever. I looked at it and couldn't believe my eyes. A woman saw
it, too. She came along just as I did. She gave one look, then
she screeched and ran. I waited for some one else, but nobody
came."
Mr. Townsend rushed out of the room.
"I daresay it'll be gone when he gets there," began George, then he
stared round the room. "What's to pay here?" he cried.
"Oh, George, the whole house shook all at once, and all the
looking-glasses broke," wailed his mother, and Adrianna and
Cordelia joined.
George whistled with pale lips. Then Mr. Townsend entered.
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