and rang
violently to bring up the servant Smith. In the short interval that
intervened, I observed the woman from the window, who having in a
leisurely way, and with a kind of scrutiny, looked along the front
windows of the house, passed quickly out again, closing the gate after
her, and followed a lady who was walking along the footpath at a quick
pace, as if with the intention of begging from her. The moment the man
entered I told him--"the blind woman you described to me has this
instant followed a lady in that direction, try to overtake her." He was,
if possible, more eager than I in the chase, but returned in a short
time after a vain pursuit, very hot, and utterly disappointed. And,
thereafter, we saw her face no more.

All this time, and up to the period of our leaving the house, which was
not for two or three months later, there occurred at intervals the only
phenomenon in the entire series having any resemblance to what we hear
described of "Spiritualism." This was a knocking, like a soft hammering
with a wooden mallet, as it seemed in the timbers between the bedroom
ceilings and the roof. It had this special peculiarity, that it was
always rythmical, and, I think, invariably, the emphasis upon the last
stroke. It would sound rapidly "one, two, three, _four_--one, two,
three, _four_;" or "one, two, _three_--one, two, _three_," and sometimes
"one, _two_--one, _two_," &c., and this, with intervals and
resumptions, monotonously for hours at a time.

At first this caused my wife, who was a good deal confined to her bed,
much annoyance; and we sent to our neighbours to inquire if any
hammering or carpentering was going on in their houses but were informed
that nothing of the sort was taking place. I have myself heard it
frequently, always in the same inaccessible part of the house, and with
the same monotonous emphasis. One odd thing about it was, that on my
wife's calling out, as she used to do when it became more than usually
troublesome, "stop that noise," it was invariably arrested for a longer
or shorter time.

Of course none of these occurrences were ever mentioned in hearing of
the children. They would have been, no doubt, like most children,
greatly terrified had they heard any thing of the matter, and known that
their elders were unable to account for what was passing; and their
fears would have made them wretched and troublesome.

They used to play for some hours every day in the back garden--the hou