peculiar and unfortunate tragedy, you will not be surprised that I
regarded the chamber as ruled out from my domiciliary scheme, and
denied it to any future guests."

"Do you really associate the lady's death with the room, Walter?"
asked Mr. Travers.

"Honestly I do not, Ernest. And for this reason: I deny that any
malignant, spiritual personality would ever be permitted by the
Creator to exercise physical powers over the living, or destroy
human beings without reason or justice. The horror of such a
possibility to the normal mind is sufficient argument against it.
Causes beyond our apparent knowledge were responsible for the death
of Nurse Forrester; but who shall presume to say that was really so?
Why imagine anything so irregular? I prefer to think that had the
post-mortem been conducted by somebody else, subtle reasons for her
death might have appeared. Science is fallible, and even specialists
make outrageous mistakes."

"You believe she died from natural causes beyond the skill of those
particular surgeons to discover?" asked Colonel Vane.

"That is my opinion. Needless to say, I should not tell Mannering
so. But to what other conclusion can a reasonable man come? I do
not, of course, deny the supernatural, but it is weak-minded to
fall back upon it as the line of least resistance."

Then Fayre-Michell repeated his question. He had listened with
intense interest to the story.