—Christina G. Rossetti.
This same evening, in the March snow-storm, Nettie Evans sat in her invalid chair beside the table in her chamber. Nettie had not grown up in appearance; face and figure were slight, her cheeks were pale, her eyes large and luminous; her laugh was as light-hearted as the laugh of any girl in the village; her father often told her that she was the busiest maiden in Bensalem.
Her busy times grew out of Mrs. Lane’s secret.
Nettie was the member of a society; the Shut-In Society. It was an organized society; it published a magazine monthly: The Open Window, with a motto upon its title-page:
“The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun.”
Since Mrs. Lane had told her about the Society and made her a member she had thrown the windows of her soul wide open to the sun.
And the Lord shut him in, was the motto of the Society. Nettie had marked the precious words in her Bible with the date of her accident, and another date: the day when she became a member of the Shut-In Society.
The Open Window had come in to-night’s mail; Nettie had been counting the hours until mail time, and laughed a joyful little laugh all to herself when she heard her father say to her mother in the hall below: “It’s mail time, and I must go to the office to-night, storm or no storm; Nettie will not sleep a wink unless she has her magazine.”