Showing results for "Veil" in Short Stories

A newly qualified doctor receives a call from his first patient - a mysterious woman who is deeply distressed and who is covered in a thick black veil. She tells him a confusing story about a dying man who she wishes the doctor to visit the following day, although she assures the doctor that the patient will certainly be dead by then. The young doctor agrees that he will make the visit at nine on the next morning...and finds himself on the strangest professional call of his entire life.

The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1832, is a grim tale about Mr Hooper, a preacher, who starts wearing a veil over the upper part of his face. He first wore the veil while delivering a sermon on secret sin, and never removes it, despite the dismay of the congregation or the pleas of his fiancée, who leaves him. Mr Hooper develops into Father Hooper, a figure who makes converts of people who imagine themselves to also hide behind the veil.