apartments, the kitchen, and other
offices, and especially the cellars, in which last there were two or
three bottles of wine still left in a bin, covered with cobwebs, and
evidently, by their appearance, undisturbed for many years. It was clear
that the ghosts were not wine-bibbers. For the rest, we discovered
nothing of interest. There was a gloomy little back-yard, with very high
walls. The stones of this yard were very damp; and what with the damp,
and what with the dust and smoke-grime on the pavement, our feet left a
slight impression where we passed. And now appeared the first strange
phenomenon witnessed by myself in this strange abode. I saw, just before
me, the print of a foot suddenly form itself, as it were. I stopped,
caught hold of my servant, and pointed to it. In advance of that
footprint as suddenly dropped another. We both saw it. I advanced
quickly to the place; the footprint kept advancing before me, a small
footprint--the foot of a child; the impression was too faint thoroughly
to distinguish the shape, but it seemed to us both that it was the print
of a naked foot.

This phenomenon ceased when we arrived at the opposite wall, nor did it
repeat itself on returning. We remounted the stairs, and entered the
rooms on the ground floor, a dining-parlor, a small back-parlor, and a
still smaller third room that had been probably appropriated to a
footman--all still as death. We then visited the drawing-rooms, which
seemed fresh and new. In the front room I seated myself in an armchair.
F---- placed on the table the candlestick with which he had lighted us.
I told him to shut the door. As he turned to do so, a chair opposite to
me moved from the wall quickly and noiselessly, and dropped itself about
a yard from my own, immediately fronting it.

"Why, this is better than the turning-tables," said I, with a
half-laugh; and as I laughed, my dog put back his head and howled.

F----, coming back, had not observed the movement of the chair. He
employed himself now in stilling the dog. I continued to gaze on the
chair, and fancied I saw on it a pale blue misty outline of a human
figure, but an outline so indistinct that I could only distrust my own
vision. The dog was now quiet.

"Put back that chair opposite to me," said I to F----; "put it back to
the wall."

F---- obeyed. "Was that you, sir?" said he turning abruptly.

"I!--what?"

"Why, something struck me. I felt it sharply on the shoulder--just
here