Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Name for Evil: A Novel
Disorder and ruin fascinate yet depress'me. I felt the need for air and perspective and so went out into the yard. Soon I was busy at the problems before us. A small passageway between the kitchen and the main dwelling had been closed. This must be knocked out to restore the charm of covered ways meant to pro tect servants from the weather. The roof needed paint ing, window sllls had rotted away, blinds were hang ing askew or missing entirely; but I told myself that these were superficial things after all. The house, built of solid brick, was surely sound. How long it took me to finish these calculations I have no way of knowing. I merely wandered to the front of the house, thinking Ellen would be there. She was not there. This seem ingly trivial fact contained for us the mystery of all fatality. It gave the slight jar to the door which even then was closing to shut us off from the natural world. The fateful moments of [life are never discerned as they occur. Nor are they ever dramatic. At best they count as unimportant tri?es to be brushed aside or for gotten. But later, when it is too late, we see them for what they are: signposts. It is for this reason they go unnoted. A sign points the way. It makes no com ment on the end of the journey.
I called Ellen's name. The tenant's wife came to the door and said, Ellen's in here.
I looked at her coldly. Whom do you mean? I asked. Mrs. Brent?
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