Stinkhouse

'It is superb advice. I am happy with the thought of my friend. Because of this thought and the friendship I hold for him, let me offer fifteen hundred dollars. It is all the money I have in the world, plus some money entrusted to me by my friend who is with the sickness of women in the stink-house called a hospital and who cannot work for himself.'

Was this place ever a tar-stained stinkhouse like the general's? No, I couldn't believe that any paint, no matter how many coats and how thick, could cover that stench. It seeps, becomes part of the building, redefines its fate.