mixed up. That is just
why, when they decide to appear--which is seldom--ghosts select stormy
nights, when it thunders, lightens and blows; that's their scenery."

"I am forced to admit that nothing could be more correct."

"Wait a moment! There are instances when the bravest man feels a shudder
run through his veins. Even before I was suffering with this aneurism it
has happened to me a dozen times, when I have seen the flash of sabres
and heard the thunder of cannon around me. It is true that since I have
been subject to this aneurism I rush where the lightning flashes and the
thunder growls. Still there is the chance that these ghosts don't know
this and believe that I can be frightened."

"Whereas that is an impossibility, isn't it?" asked Sir John.

"What will you! When, right or wrong, one feels that, far from dreading
death, one has every reason to seek it, what should he fear? But I
repeat, these ghosts, who know so much, may not know that only ghosts
know this; they know that the sense of fear increases or diminishes
according to the seeing and hearing of exterior things. Thus, for
example, where do phantoms prefer to appear? In dark places, cemeteries,
old cloisters, ruins, subterranean passages, because the aspect of these
localities predisposes the soul to fear. What precedes their appearance?
The rattling of chains, groans, sighs, because there is nothing very
cheerful in all that? They are careful not to appear in the bright
light, or after a strain of dance music. No, fear is an abyss into which
you descend step by step, until you are overcome by vertigo; your feet
slip, and you plunge with closed eyes to the bottom of the precipice.
Now, if you read the accounts of all these apparitions, you'll find they
all proceed like this: First the sky darkens, the thunder growls, the
wind howls, doors and windows rattle, the lamp--if there is a lamp
in the room of the person the ghosts are trying to frighten--the lamp
flares, flickers and goes out--utter darkness! Then, in the darkness,
groans, wails and the rattling of chains are heard; then, at last, the
door opens and the ghost appears. I must say that all the apparitions
that I have not seen but read about have presented themselves under
similar circumstances. Isn't that so, Sir John?"

"Perfectly."

"And did you ever hear of a ghost appearing to two persons at the same
time?"

"I certainly never did hear of it."

"It's quite simple, my dear fellow. Tw