Amanda perceived the odour with a start as if before an actual
presence. Odour seems in a sense a vital part of a personality.
It can survive the flesh to which it has clung like a persistent
shadow, seeming to have in itself something of the substance of
that to which it pertained. Amanda was always conscious of this
fragrance of lovage as she tidied the room. She dusted the heavy
mahogany pieces punctiliously after she had opened the bed as her
sister had directed. She spread fresh towels over the wash-stand
and the bureau; she made the bed. Then she thought to take the
purple gown from the easy chair and carry it to the garret and put
it in the trunk with the other articles of the dead woman's
wardrobe which had been packed away there; BUT THE PURPLE GOWN WAS
NOT ON THE CHAIR!
Amanda Gill was not a woman of strong convictions even as to her
own actions. She directly thought that possibly she had been
mistaken and had not removed it from the closet. She glanced at
the closet door and saw with surprise that it was open, and she had
thought she had closed it, but she instantly was not sure of that.
So she entered the closet and looked for the purple gown.
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