Did not that sound innocent? But I know she was studying that pattern,
and I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself!
Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be. You see I have
something more to expect, to look forward to, to watch. I really do eat
better, and am more quiet than I was.
John is so pleased to see me improve! He laughed a little the other
day, and said I seemed to be flourishing in spite of my wallpaper.
I turned it off with a laugh. I had no intention of telling him it was
because of the wallpaper he would make fun of me. He might even want to
take me away.
I don t want to leave now until I have found it out. There is a week
more, and I think that will be enough.
I m feeling ever so much better! I don t sleep much at night, for it is
so interesting to watch developments; but I sleep a good deal in the
daytime.
In the daytime it is tiresome and perplexing.
There are always new shoots on the fungus, and new shades of yellow all
over it. I cannot keep count of them, though I have tried
conscientiously.
It is the strangest yellow, that wallpaper! It makes me think of all
the yellow things I ever saw not beautiful ones like buttercups, but
old foul, bad yellow things.
But there is something else about that paper the smell! I noticed it
the moment we came into the room, but with so much air and sun it was
not bad. Now we have had a week of fog and rain, and whether the
windows are open or not, the smell is here.
It creeps all over the house.
I find it hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor, hiding
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